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The 2021 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: code red for a healthy future

Romanello M., McGushin A., et al. (2021) C2

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate. Publishing updated, new, and improved indicators each year, the Lancet Countdown represents the consensus of leading researchers from 43 academic institutions and UN ag... more

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Challenges and Opportunities for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in the COVID-19 Response in Africa: A Mixed-Methods Study

Walker, A. et al. (2022) CC

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 9313. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19159313. A mixed-methods study, using an online survey and in-depth interviews, was conducted. Participants included Mental Health Focal Points at the Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) country ... 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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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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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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Considerações sobre povos indígenas, afrodescendentes e outros grupos étnicos durante a pandemia de COVID-19

Pan American Health Organization PAHO (2020) C_WHO

Introdução: Em março de 2020, a Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) declarou que o surto de COVID-19, doença causada por um novo coronavírus, passava a constituir uma pandemia, dada a velocidade e escala de transmissão da doença. A Região das Américas é caracterizada por uma riqueza mult... more

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HEARTS. Technical package for cardiovascular disease management in primary health care. Evidence-based treatment protocols

World Health Organization WHO, et al. (2018) C_WHO

In many low- and middle-income countries, there is a wide gap between evidencebased recommendations and current practice. Treatment of major CVD risk factors remains suboptimal, and only a minority of patients who are treated reach their target levels for blood pressure, blood sugar and blood choles... 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 on Selection and Use of One Health Operational Tools

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO; UN Environment Programme UNEP; World Health Organization WHO; World Organisation for Animal Health WOAH (2024) C_WHO

The One Health (OH) High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) of the Quadripartite Organizations defined OH as an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems.” It recognizes the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plan... more

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Salwa S. et al - Leishmaniasis

Salwa, S.; Amaar, A.; Baraa, A. et al (2020) C2

Leishmaniasis is a vector-borne tropical/subtropical disease caused by an intracellular parasite transmitted to humans by sand fly bite. It is endemic in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Mediterranean region. Worldwide reports include 1.5–2 million new cases each year, more than 300 million at ... more

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WHO guidance: Public health response to biological and chemical weapons

World Health Organization (2004) C_WHO

The message contained in this publication is clear: countries need a public health system that can respond to the deliberate release of chemical and biological agents. Regrettable though this message may be, the use of poison gas in the war between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 19... more

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Nutrition matters: Guidance for nutrition programming

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2016) CC

This guidance highlights tangible, evidence-based priority actions in health and WASH programs to achieve the Global Targets for nutrition. Throughout the guidance the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration within and outside the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement to holistically address nutrition ... more

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Rwanda: Emergency Medicine Clinical Guidelines

Ministry of Health, Rwanda (2016) C2

The clinical guidelines and protocols for the practice of emergency medicine presented in this document are designed to be a useful resource not only for those wishing to become emergency medicine specialists, but also for general practitioners and other healthcare providers tasked with caring for p... more

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The urgency of now - Turning the tide against epidemic and pandemic infectious diseases

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) (2021) CC

CEPI is seeking to raise $3.5 billion to implement CEPI’s next 5-year plan. To mitigate the immediate threat of COVID-19 variants, it is activating key elements of this plan now—and seeking to mobilise a portion of this $3.5 billion in 2021. We have already launched R&D programmes to initiate de... more

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National Nutrition Programme - June 2013 – June 2015

Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (2013) C1

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Introduction to Food Security Intervention Principles

Action Contre la Faim (ACF) (2008) C2

Reference book specifying the principles of intervention for all food security activities, from initial assessment to programme implementation.

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Southern Africa: UNICEF El Niño Nutrition Response

UN Children's Fund (2016) C1

Nutrition Situation of Children in Southern Africa • Almost 15 million people are food and nutrition insecure (including approximately 7.8 million children) in the 7 priority countries. • Approximately 36% of children in the 7 priority countries in Southern Africa are stunted and there... more

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Regional Emergency Response Appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa

World Health Organization WHO (2022) CC

The Greater Horn of Africa is experiencing one of the worst food insecurity situations in decades. It is estimated that more than 37 million people are in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)1 phase 3 or above and approximately 7 million children under the age of five are acutely mal... more

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Nutrition indicators for development - Reference Guide

B. MAIRE F. DELPEUCH Institut de Recherche pour le Développement Montpellier, France. (2005) C1

In this guide, indicators relevant to different aspects of nutrition and associated sectors are brought together, especially those which have appeared regularly over the last 15 years. More than a comprehensive list of indicators, the guide seeks to provide an illustration of the variety of the most... more

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Programmatic Guidance Brief On Use Of Micronutrient Powders (MNP) For Home Fortification

Home Fortification Technical Advisory Group (2014)

Accessed June 2014

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

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