The Table Top (TTX) COVID-19 exercise is a tool that has been developed to assist Governments and Agencies in the process of strengthening plans and policies with the intention of being able to identify and contain and outbreak of COVID19 in the country. The TTX Simulation is designed to support the... use of the “WHO Operational Readiness Benchmarks for COVID-19” (see in reference documents provided). This exercise uses the scenario of an imported case, as the base for a detailed discussion guided by the exercise facilitator.
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Response to the Periodic EpidemicThe document "Zanzibar's Victory Against Cholera Epidemic" details the successful efforts taken by Zanzibar to control and eliminate cholera outbreaks. It highlights the strategies implemented, including improved water and sanitation infrastructure, public health cam...paigns, vaccination programs, and rapid response measures. The report emphasizes community engagement, government commitment, and international partnerships as key factors in combating the disease. Zanzibar's experience serves as a model for other regions facing similar public health challenges, demonstrating that sustained efforts in hygiene, disease surveillance, and emergency preparedness can effectively control cholera epidemics.
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Large-Scale UN Response Needed to Address Health and Food Crises
This report is based on interviews with more than 150 health care professionals, Venezuelans seeking or in need of medical care who recently arrived in Colombia and Brazil, representatives from international and nongovernmental humani...tarian organizations. In addition, researchers analyzed data on the situation inside Venezuela from official sources, hospitals, international and national organizations, and civil society organizations.
We found a health system in utter collapse with increased levels of maternal and infant mortality; the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and diphtheria; and increases in numbers of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB). Although the government stopped publishing official data on nutrition in 2007, research by Venezuelan organizations and universities documents high levels of food insecurity and child malnutrition, and available data shows high hospital admissions of malnourished children.
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Nearly half the population of Sierra Leone is under the age of 18 years and the impact of the Ebola crisis on their lives now and on their future opportunities has been far-reaching: no school; loss of family members and friends to the virus; and changing roles and responsibilities in the home and t...he community.
While the priority now remains meeting the goal of zero cases, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) is also developing a comprehensive strategy aimed at supporting communities to recover from this crisis, to put the country back on track to meet development targets. The Ebola Recovery Strategy – currently being finalised by the GoSL – represents a potentially transformative framework to support the immediate recovery of children from the crisis and to ensure their place in the future development of Sierra Leone.
To date, there has not been a formal process for children to outline their own priorities for recovery to decision-makers. In mid-March 2015, child-centred agencies conducted a Children’s Ebola Recovery Assessment (CERA) in nine districts across Sierra Leone to create a mechanism for more than 1,100 boys and girls, to discuss issues of concern; assess the impact of the crisis on their roles, responsibilities and future opportunities; and to formulate their recommendations for recovery.
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Nurses are critical to deliver on the promise of “leaving no one behind” and the global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They make a central contribution to national and global targets related to a range of health priorities, including universal health coverage, mental... health and noncommunicable diseases, emergency preparedness and
response, patient safety, and the delivery of integrated, people-centred care.
No global health agenda can be realized without concerted and sustained efforts to maximize the contributions of the nursing workforce and their roles within interprofessional health teams. To do so requires policy interventions that enable them to have maximum impact and effectiveness by optimizing nurses’ scope and leadership, alongside accelerated investment
in their education, skills and jobs. Such investments will also contribute to the SDG targets related to education, gender, decent work and inclusive economic growth.
This State of the world’s nursing 2020 report, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the International Council of Nurses and the global Nursing Now campaign, and with the support of governments and wider partners, provides a compelling case on the value of the nursing workforce globally.
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AidData has developed a set of open source data collection methods to track project-level data on suppliers of official finance who do not participate in global reporting systems. This codebook outlines the version 1.1 set of TUFF procedures that have been developed, tested, refined, and implemented... by AidData researchers and affiliated faculty at the College of William & Mary and Brigham Young University.
In the first iteration of this codebook, AidData's Media-Based Data Collection Methodology, Version 1.0, we referred to our data collection procedures as a “media-based data collection” (MBDC) methodology. The term “media-based” was misleading, as the methodology does not rely exclusively on media reports; rather, media reports are used only as a departure point, and are supplemented with case studies undertaken by scholars and non-governmental organizations, project inventories supplied through Chinese embassy websites, and grants and loan data published by recipient governments. In the interest of providing greater clarity, we now refer to our methodology for systematically gathering open source development finance information as the Tracking Underreported Financial Flows (TUFF) methodology. This codebook outlines the set of TUFF procedures that have been developed, tested, refined, and implemented by AidData staff and affiliated faculty at the College of William & Mary and Brigham Young University.
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The purpose of this plan is to:
Present the GoP’s strategy and actions;
Propose an aid coordination approach;
Identify the critical support needs, including for: public health response to COVID-19; budget support to maintain government services; and diplomatic engagement with region...al partners; and
Describe our expectations of the longer-term economic impact of COVID-19 and required economic recovery actions.
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mnesty International’s annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2021, published in March 2022, shows that promises to “build back better” after the Covid-19 pandemic were little more than lip service. Hopes of global cooperation withered in the face of vaccine hoarding and c...orporate greed.
Governments suppressed independent and critical voices, with some even using the pandemic as a pretext to shrink further the civic space. New and unresolved conflicts erupted or persisted. Those forced to flee were subjected to a litany of abuses, including pushbacks by countries in the Global North. But hopes for a better post-pandemic world were kept alive by courageous individuals, social movements and civil society organizations.
The report is available in different languages
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The coronavirus outbreak that began in 2019 (COVID-19) threatens to reverse years of hard-won gains in preventing and treating HIV. Fragile health systems are further stressed as health workers navigate an increased client load and demands at work while also being concerned for their own health and ...that of their families. Health facilities have been redesigned to care for patients with COVID-19, posing challenges to other services. Governments and civil society organizations have redirected scarce resources and shifted programming priorities to respond to the pandemic. Several countries have reported intermittent declines in HIV testing and diagnosis, antenatal care visits, collection of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) by people living with HIV, and attendance at clinic appointments. Community-based education and support programmes have had to rapidly adapt to restrictions on movement and public gatherings. Children, adolescents, and women have experienced multiple deprivations due to the adverse impact of the pandemic.
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This guide was prepared to enable advocates to use data
when advocating for universal access to SRHR at the national,
regional and global levels. It is a direct outcome of the Strategic
SRHR Indicators workshop held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on
21-22 August for the project “Strengthening the N...etworking,
Knowledge Management and Advocacy Capacities of an AsiaPacific
Network for SRHR” supported by the EU.
One of the major objectives of the project is to develop
a comprehensive monitoring framework of indicators for
measuring government performance to fulfil their international
commitments, particularly to the ICPD and the MDGs, both in
the Asia-Pacific region and globally.
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More than 800,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived in Europe by sea in 2015, with most traveling onward to northern and western EU countries. According to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, 84 percent were from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, or Iraq – all countries experienci...ng conflict, widespread violence and insecurity, or countries with highly repressive governments. European Union governments should take urgent action to bring Europe’s response to the refugee challenge, now a full blown EU crisis, in line with their legal responsibilities and stated values.
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For the first time WHO and UNICEF bring together the data on sanitation coverage and investment, and how it impacts health, economies, and the environment. Citing evidence on what works from successful countries and global guidelines, WHO and UNICEF call for strong government leadership and investme...nt in resilient sanitation services. The report charts an ambitious way forward following the SDG6 global acceleration framework themes of governance, financing, capacity development, data and information, and innovation to achieve universal access to safe sanitation.
Read the full publication report here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240014473.
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Following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, Ukraine embarked on a national reform program to reduce widespread corruption within government. In the health sector, the government introduced several complementary reforms that aimed to improve the health outcomes of Ukrainian citizens, but designed in su...ch a way that they would also reduce corruption. The reforms included reconfiguring primary care financing and essential medicines reimbursement under the newly formed National Health Service of Ukraine; raising the remuneration of health professionals; introducing a transparent, merit-based, process for medical university admissions; and initiating development of an eHealth digital records system.
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nContraception and Reproductive Medicine (2017) 2:26 DOI 10.1186/s40834-017-0053-6
Young women in Burkina Faso and Mali are increasingly using modern contraceptives for family planning; however, the LAPM contraceptive prevalence rate remains low. Our analysis indicates that social norms around idea...l family size for both men and women continue to drive young women’s choices around family planning and impede use of LAPMs. To increase modern contraceptive use and curb fertility rates, local governments and development organizations should focus on women’s empowerment and include male partners.
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According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me...ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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According to the latest available estimates, more than 1 in 7 adolescents aged 10–19 is estimated to live with a diagnosed mental disorder globally. Almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide each year, among the top five causes of death for their age group. Meanwhile, wide gaps persist between me...ntal health needs and mental health funding. The report finds that about 2 per cent of government health budgets are allocated to mental health spending globally.
The full report , excecutive summary, brief reports are available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic athttps://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2021?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=sowc-web
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The results of the report clearly show that in 2020, a year dominated by the emergence of COVID-19 and its associated health and economic crises, governments around the world rose to the challenge. Sharp increases in government spending on health at all country income levels underpinned the rise in ...health spending to a new high of US $9 trillion (approximately 11% of global GDP). Government health spending generally increased and offset declines in out-of-pocket spending. Importantly, the rise in government health spending was part of a much broader fiscal response to the pandemic. In high income and upper-middle income countries social protection spending also increased sharply in as governments attempted to cushion populations from the economic impacts of COVID-19. In contrast to health and social protection, growth in education spending was relatively subdued. Countries face the further challenge of sustaining increased public spending on health and other social sectors in the face of deteriorating macroeconomic conditions and rising debt servicing. This also includes the challenge of sustaining external support for low income countries, which is essential for reducing ensuring poverty, ensuring access to health services and strengthening pandemic preparedness.
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4. Central African Republic
Clashes throughout 2018 in the capital Bangui and a number of major towns illustrate the deadly threat posed by armed groups – a mix of pro-government militias, ex-rebels, bandits and local “self-defence” units – that control much of the countr...y. MINUSCA, the UN peacekeeping force, has failed to neutralise these groups and, as a result, is mistrusted by the general public. Likewise, the national army, slowly being deployed in parts of the country, has been unable to constrain the armed groups’ predatory activities. The humanitarian situation remains dire, with more than one million people internally displaced or fleeing to neighbouring countries and 2.5 million in need of assistance, according to the UN.
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An external team evaluated PAHO’s response to COVID-19 to provide an independent assessment of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau’s (PASB) performance regarding preparedness for and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluations’ final report culminates with eight recommendations for actions... to future response to health emergencies. The final report of EPRC culminates with eight evidence-based recommendations of actions to strengthen future pandemic responses, while building a resilient recovery in the Region. The recommendations by the external team focus on PAHO’s governance and management, on specialized regional mechanisms, diversified funding models, and use of new technologies, among others.
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This report from Human Rights Watch found that South Africa has failed to guarantee the right to education for many of the country’s children and young adults due to widespread discrimination against children with disabilities in enrollment decisions. Human Rights Watch research in five out of Sou...th Africa’s nine provinces showed that children with disabilities face discriminatory physical and attitudinal barriers, often beginning early in children’s lives when government officials classify them according to their disabilities. Human Rights Watch August 2015
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