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Guidance on easing lockdown

Africa CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2020) CC

In response to the first cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reported on the continent, many African Union Member States implemented large-scale public health and social measures (PHSM) rapidly. These measures were aimed at reducing transmission and the number of new cases being reported, p... more

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Occupational COPD—The most under-recognized occupational lung disease?

Mugia, N.; Gambelunghe, A. John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd (Respirology) (2022) CC2

The article discusses chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a common but under-recognized occupational disease. While smoking is the main cause, occupational exposure to vapors, gases, dusts, and fumes (VGDF) significantly contributes to the development and progression of COPD. Epidemiolog... more

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Malaria's Impact Worldwide

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2025) C_CDC

The CDC's "Malaria's Impact Worldwide" webpage provides an overview of malaria's global burden, highlighting that in 2022, there were approximately 249 million malaria cases and 608,000 deaths, predominantly among young children in sub-Saharan Africa. It emphasizes that nearly half the world's po... more

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Global spending on health: Emerging from the pandemic

World Health Organization (WHO) (2024) CC

The Global Health Expenditure Report delves into the intricate landscape of global economies and health systems. This year, it focuses on health spending in 2022, the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows how countries around the world responded to the health and economic shocks of the pande... more

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Chinese health funding in Africa: The untold story

Dolan C.B., Malik A.A., Zhang S., et al. PLOS Global Public Health (2023) CC

The motivations behind China’s allocation of health aid to Africa remain complex due to limited information on the details of health aid project activities. Insufficient knowledge about the purpose of China’s health aid hinders our understanding of China’s comprehensive role in supporting Afri... more

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Financing malaria

Rannan-Eliya R.P. PLOS Global Public Health (2022) CC

The faltering of progress towards malaria elimination follows a plateauing in international financing since 2010. Despite calls for increased international financing, this will be hard to achieve. Both developed country donors and developing countries with malaria face severe fiscal constraints in e... more

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The Cost-Effectiveness of Health Aid

Fan V.Y., Webster B.S., Subramanian V., et al. Center for Global Development (2024) CC

One approach to development assistance for health, or health aid, emphasizes the ex ante selection of cost-effective health interventions, an approach that began with the World Development Report (1993) on Investing in Health and has since been adopted by the Effective Altruism community. But just h... more

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WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care
recommended

World Health Organization WHO (2025) C_WHO

The guidelines are primarily intended for health-care professionals working in first- or second-level health-care facilities, including emergency, inpatient and outpatient services. They are also directed at policy-makers, health-care planners and programme managers, academic institutions, non-gover... more

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WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex A. Quantitative evidence reports
recommended

New

World Health Organization WHO (2025) C_WHO

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WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex C. Evidence-to-Decision frameworks
recommended

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World Health Organization WHO (2025) C_WHO

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OCHA Policy Brief on Gendered Drivers, Risks and Impacts of Food Insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2023) CC

It is widely understood that the food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is one of the world’s fastest growing and most neglected crises. It lacks sufficient global focus, resources and urgency. As in so many crises, women and girls are disproportionately affected and shoulder t...he consequences of protracted neglect, with unconscionable impacts on their safety, life chances and agency. Gaining a holistic view of the gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is difficult. This is due to a lack of data and prioritization, and the large geographical and socioeconomic terrain covered by both regions. However, what we do know about this crisis is more than enough to urgently address the needs of women and girls. An OCHA discussion paper on this topic (which will be published imminently, and from which this policy brief is drawn) found that there is: A strong risk of profound regression in gender equality gains made to date in the countries of concern, including on education, sexual and reproductive health, and the economic independence of women and girls (with knock-on effects on broader humanitarian and development outcomes). An increasing challenge to reverse what must be recognized as a protracted and growing gender-based violence (GBV) emergency in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. The food insecurity crisis in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa is protracted, multidimensional and highly gendered, with spiralling impacts on gender equality and food security outcomes. It is driven by interwoven and overlapping factors, including climate change, political instability, conflict, socioeconomic conditions, migration and displacement and, more recently, COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Interlinked with these factors are gendered structural drivers of food insecurity, including deeply entrenched gender inequalities and harmful social norms. Gendered risks and impacts of food insecurity include alarming limitations on access to education, sexual and reproductive health rights, women’s agency and participation, and dramatic increases in different existing forms of GBV and the emergence of new ones. Recognition of such gendered dimensions of food insecurity and of the need for a multisectoral approach in the response is key to addressing the crisis, along-side sustained commitment and adequate allocation of resources. This policy brief draws out key findings from the OCHA discussion paper on this topic, which includes a desk review of studies, assessments and reports, and interviews with local women’s organizations on the front lines of the food insecurity crisis in communities across both regions. Below are the most pressing gendered drivers, risks and impacts of food insecurity (not in order of priority), as well as key gaps in the current humanitarian response to food insecurity, and recommendations to take forward. more

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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 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. more

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Guidance to facilitate monitoring and evaluation for antimicrobial resistance national action plans

Quadripartite: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO; UN Environment Programme UNEP; World Health Organization WHO; World Organisation for Animal Health WAHO (2023) CC

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global human, animal, plant and environment health threat that needs to be addressed by every country. The impacts of AMR are wide-ranging in terms of human health, animal health, food security and safety, environmental effects on ecosystems and biodiversity, and ...socioeconomic development. Just like the climate crisis, AMR poses a significant threat to the delivery of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The response to the AMR crisis has been spearheaded through the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance (GAP-AMR), developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, in close collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and formally endorsed by the three organizations’ governing bodies and by the Political Declaration of the high-level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on AMR in 2016. In 2022, the three organizations officially became the Quadripartite by welcoming the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) into the alliance “to accelerate coordination strategy on human, animal and ecosystem health”. The aim of the GAP-AMR is to ensure the continuity of successful treatment with effective and safe medicines. Its strategic objectives include: • improving the awareness and understanding of AMR; • strengthening the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research; • reducing the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene and infection prevention measures; optimizing the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health; and • developing the economic case for sustainable investment that takes account of the needs of all countries and increasing investment in new medicines, diagnostic tools, vaccines and other interventions. With the adoption of the GAP-AMR, countries agreed to develop national action plans (NAPs) aligned with the GAP-AMR to mainstream AMR interventions nationally. Individually, the Quadripartite took action to advance AMR interventions in their respective sectors. FAO adopted a resolution on AMR recognizing that it poses an increasingly serious threat to public health and sustainable food production, and developed an AMR action plan to support the resolution’s implementation. For its part, WOAH developed a strategy on AMR aligned with the GAP-AMR, acknowledging the importance of a One Health approach to AMR. Similarly, more recently, UNEP’s governing body, the United Nations Environment Assembly, recognized that AMR is a current and increasing threat and a challenge to global health, food security and the sustainable development of all countries, and welcomed the GAP-AMR and the NAPs developed in accordance with its five overarching strategic objectives more

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Considerações sobre o impacto da covid-19 na relação indivíduo-sociedade: da hesitação vacinal ao clamor por uma vacina

Couto,M.T.; Carolina L.A. Barbieri, C. Carvalho de Souza Amorim Matos (2021) CC

Saúde Soc. São Paulo, v.30, n.1, e200450, 2021 Desde março de 2020, quando a Organização Mundial de Saúde declarou que o mundo vivia uma pandemia de covid-19, acompanhamos um quadro sanitário sem precedentes nos últimos 100 anos. As medidas atuais contra a ... more

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NAPHS for all: a country implementation guide for national action plan for health security (‎NAPHS)‎ - Second edition
recommended

World Health Organization WHO (2025) C_WHO

Lessons learned from recent public health events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola virus disease, Zika virus disease outbreaks, and other public health threats, including earthquakes and floods, have highlighted the need for countries to continuously develop, strengthen, and maintain capacities r... more

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Burden of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and access to essential medicines in low-income and middle-income countries

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine (2015) CC2

Demographic and epidemiological transitions are changing the age structure of the population and the most common diseases. Non-communicable respiratory diseases are an increasing problem at both ends of the age range in low-income and middle-income countries. In children, who represent a large propo... more

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World Heart Federation Roadmap for Hypertension – A 2021 Update

Jemoon, P.; Séverin, T.; Amodeo, C. et al. Global Heart (2021) CC

The World Heart Federation (WHF) Roadmap series covers a large range of cardiovascular conditions. These Roadmaps identify potential roadblocks and their solutions to improve the prevention, detection and management of cardiovascular diseases and provide a generic global framework available for loca... more

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Promoting Cardiovascular Health in the Developing World

Institute of Medicine (2010) CC

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is often thought to be a problem of wealthy, industrialized nations. The term “cardiovascular disease” is used throughout the report to refer to cardiac disease, vascular diseases of the brain and kidney, and peripheral vascular disease. The report’s main focus is ... more

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Influencing food environments for healthy diets

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO (2016) C2

Food environments are usually defined as the settings with all the different types of food made available and accessible to people as they go about their daily lives. That is, the range of food in supermarkets, small retail outlets, wet markets, street food stalls, coffee shops, tea houses, s...chool canteens, restaurants, and all the other venues where people buy and eat food. These environments differ enormously depending on the context. They can be extensive and diverse, with a seemingly endless array of options and price ranges, or they can be sparse, with very few options on offer. Because they determine what food consumers can access at a given moment in time, at what price, and with what degree of convenience, food environments both constrain and prompt the consumer’s choice.Food environments are influenced by the food systems which supply them, and vice versa. Food systems encompass the entire range of activities, people and institutions involved in the production, processing, marketing, consumption and disposal of food (FAO, 2013). They include but are not limited to food supply chains. Making food systems nutrition-sensitive can contribute to addressing all forms of malnutrition, as food systems determine whether the food needed for good nutrition are available, affordable, acceptable and of adequate quantity and quality. How closely food systems and food environments are interrelated and interdependent, and the degree to which external factors affect nutrition outcomes, varies from setting to setting.Many of today’s food systems and food environments are challenged in supporting consumer choices that are consistent with healthy diets and good nutrition. Consumers are not making choices based on nutrition and health, and poor diet is now the number one risk factor for death and disability worldwide (GBD, 2015). Food systems that do not enable healthy diets are increasingly recognized as an underlying cause of malnutrition (GLOPAN, 2016), and malnutrition, irrespective of form, has a huge cost. Economic costs associated with undernutrition are estimated at $1-2 trillion per year, about 2-3% of global GDP (FAO, 2013); the global economic cost of obesity and associated diet-related non-communicable diseases is estimated at $2 trillion per year, about 2.8% of global GDP (McKinsey, 2014). Influencing food environments for promoting healthy diets is an emerging strategy to address today’s nutrition challenges. more

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Financing transformative health systems towards achievement of the health Sustainable Development Goals: a model for projected resource needs in 67 low-income and middle-income countries

Stenberg, K.; O. Hanssen; T. Tan-Torres Edejer et al. Lancet Glob Health (2017) C1

Background The ambitious development agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires substantial investments across several sectors, including for SDG 3 (healthy lives and wellbeing). No estimates of the additional resources needed to strengthen comprehensive health service delivery to... more

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care recommended

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex A. Quantitative evidence reports recommended New

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex C. Evidence-to-Decision frameworks recommended New

NAPHS for all: a country implementation guide for national action plan for health security (‎NAPHS)‎ - Second edition recommended

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care
recommended

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex A. Quantitative evidence reports
recommended

New

WHO guidelines on meningitis diagnosis, treatment and care. Web Annex C. Evidence-to-Decision frameworks
recommended

New

NAPHS for all: a country implementation guide for national action plan for health security (‎NAPHS)‎ - Second edition
recommended