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Climate-Smart Healthcare : Low-Carbon and Resilience Strategies for the Health Sector

The World Bank Group (2017) CC

Climate change is damaging human health now and is projected to have a greater impact in the future. Low- and middle-income countries are seeing the worst effects as they are most vulnerable to climate shifts and least able to adapt given weak health systems and poor infrastructure. Low-carbon appro... 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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The Essential Public Health Functions in the Americas: A Renewal for the 21st Century. Conceptual Framework and Description

Pan American Health Organisation PAHO (2021) C_WHO

The document is structured into five sections. The first presents the key experiences and challenges that justify a renewal of the EPHFs. The second section updates the groundwork for the exercise of public health and provides a framework to inform the exercise of the new essential functions. The th... more

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Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2014) CC

Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity, IHME’s fifth annual report on global health expenditure, depicts financing trends that underline the resilience of development assistance for health. This year’s updated estimates show that despite lackluster economic growth and fi... more

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Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. A tool for Action.

Promundo, UNFPA (2016)

This tool is a living document that provides guidance on good partnership practices that promote strong relationships between civil society organizations and government representatives on engaging men and boys in gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). ... more

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Community health workers to improve adherence to anti-seizure medication in rural South Africa: Is it cost-effective?
recommended

Wagner, R.C.; F. Norström, M. Y. Bertram et al. Epilepsia (2020) C1

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience a high disease burden for epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition.The authors evaluate the cost-effectiveness of community health workers (CHWs) to improve adherence to medication for epilepsy in South Africa. They found that utilizing CHWs to i... more

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WHF Roadmap for Digital Health in Cardiology

Tromp, J.; Jindal, D.; Redfern, J. et al. Global Heart (2022) CC

ABSTRACT More than 500 million people worldwide live with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Health systems today face fundamental challenges in delivering optimal care due to ageing populations, healthcare workforce constraints, financing, availability and affordability of CVD medicine, and service del... more

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Survive, Thrive, Transform — Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030)

Joint United Nations Programme on HIVAIDS (UNAIDS) (2018) C1

2018 monitoring report: current status and strategic priorities
The report sets out the status of women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, and on health systems and social and environmental determinants. Regional dashboards on 16 key indicators highlight where progress is being made o... more

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The Missing Billion. Access to Health Services for 1 Billion People with Disabilities

Kuper, H.; and P. Heydt (2019) CC

One billion people around the world live with disabilities. This report makes the case that they are being “left behind” in the global community’s work on health. This lack of access not only violates the rights of people with disabilities under international law, but UHC and SDG 3 cannot be a... more

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Textbooks for Sustainable Development - A guide to embedding

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (UNESCO MGIEP) (2017)

This valuable and timely guidebook represents an innovative contribution to enhancing quality education through textbooks. It will change the way textbook authors, publishers and educators, as well as governments of the United Nations Member States, see the poten... more

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In Control. A Practical Handbook for Professionals Working in Health Emergencies Internationally
recommended

Germany’s National Public Health Institute (RKI), et al. (2021) C1

In Control imparts knowledge, provokes reflection and triggers curiosity. The first half of the book provides an overview of the organisations, principles, frameworks and themes that every professional deploying to health emergencies should be aware of. The second half of the book provides practical... more

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An Advocate’s Guide: Strategic Indicators for Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
recommended

TK Sundari Ravindran Asian-Pacific Resource & Research C0entre for Women (ARROW) (2015) C1

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... more

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A triple dividend: The health, social and economic gains from financing the HIV response in Africa

Cook, R.; S. Jain; S. Aleyan; et al. Economist Impact (2023) CC

This report presents findings from research conducted by Economist Impact to assess the health, demographic, social and economic impacts associated with different scenarios for financing the HIV epidemic across 13 selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The sponsorship of UNAIDS towards this repor... more

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Botswana: Rapid Assessment of Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Linkages

IPPF, UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS (2011) C2

This summary highlights the experiences, results and actions from the implementation of the Rapid Assessment Tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Linkages in Botswana. The tool – developed by IPPF, UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS, GNP+, ICW and Young Positives in 2009 – supports national assessmen... more

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Start with Her: UNFPA Strategy for Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health and Well-Being 2025–2030

United Nations Population Fund UNFPA (2025) CC

Nearly 800 women die every day from preventable maternal causes, and in 2022 alone, an estimated 2.3 million newborns died. For every maternal death, countless more women endure life-altering injuries, infections, and disabilities related to childbirth. Maternal deaths are concentrated in the poo... more

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WHO Profile on mental health in development (WHO proMIND): Sierra Leone

World Health Organization (WHO), Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (2012) C_WHO

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Zambia Demographic and Health Survey 2007

Central Statistical Office Lusaka; Ministry of Health Zambia; Tropical Diseases Research Centre, Zambia, DHS; et al. (2009) C1

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Contracting between faith-based and public health sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: an ongoing crisis? The cases of Cameroon, Tanzania, Chad and Uganda

Delphine Boulenger, Basile Keugoung & Bart Criel, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp Medicus Mundi International Network (MMI) (2009) C1

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Atlas - Child and adolescent mental health resources

World Health Organization; International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions; World Psychiatric Association (2005) C_WHO

Global concerns: Implications for the future Child Mental Health Atlas

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A comparative analysis of national HIV policies in six African countries with generalized epidemics

K. Church; F. Kiweewa, A.Dasgupta; et al. Bull World Health Organ; PMC (US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health) (2015) C2

Bull World Health Organ 2015;93:457–467 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.14.147215

Community health workers to improve adherence to anti-seizure medication in rural South Africa: Is it cost-effective? recommended

In Control. A Practical Handbook for Professionals Working in Health Emergencies Internationally recommended

An Advocate’s Guide: Strategic Indicators for Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights recommended

Community health workers to improve adherence to anti-seizure medication in rural South Africa: Is it cost-effective?
recommended

In Control. A Practical Handbook for Professionals Working in Health Emergencies Internationally
recommended

An Advocate’s Guide: Strategic Indicators for Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
recommended