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.
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A guide to support implementation of health service Quality Improvement activities in Ethiopian health facilities
Lessons from a decade of Progress
Las guías para la prevención de Infecciones del Sitio Quirúrgico (ISQ) resumen las medidas basadas en la evidencia que han demostrado disminuir su incidencia y mejorar la calidad asistencial de los pacientes sometidos a cirugía. La última revisión local fue realizada en el año 2009, en el mar...co del consenso intersociedades INE - SADI - ADECI.
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Mental disorders impose an enormous burden on society, accounting for almost one in three years lived with disability globally. •In addition to their health impact, mental disorders cause a significant economic burden due to lost economic output and the link between mental disorders and costly, po...tentially fatal conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV, and obesity.•80% of the people likely to experience an episode of a mental disorder in their lifetime come from low- and middle-income countries.• Two of the most common forms of mental disorders, anxiety and depression, are prevalent, disabling, and respond to a range of treatments that are safe and effective. Yet, owing to stigma and inadequate funding, these disorders are not being treated in most primary care and community settings.
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EU Compass for Action on Mental Health and Well-being
These guidelines form part of efforts to institutionalise the prevention and containment of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in health care facilities in South Africa, as outlined in the Antimicrobial Resistance Strategic Framework and Implementation Plan. The focus of these guidelines is on two inte...rrelated aspects of prevention of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) and their spread; and the application of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) practices at hospital level.
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COVID-19 Vaccines: 1 Safety Surveillance 2 Manual
While there is no indication that pregnant women have an increased susceptibility to infection with SARS-CoV-2, there is evidence that pregnancy may increase the risk of severe illness and mortality from COVID-19 disease in comparison with non-pregn...ant women of reproductive age. As seen with non-pregnant women, a high proportion of pregnant women have asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease is associated with recognized medical (e.g., high body-mass index (BMI), diabetes, pre-existing pulmonary or cardiac conditions) and social (e.g., social deprivation, ethnicity) risk factors. Pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19 appear to have an increased risk of intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation and death in comparison with non-pregnant women of reproductive age, although the absolute risks remain low. COVID-19 may increase the risk of preterm birth, compared with pregnant women without COVID-19, although the evidence is inconclusive.
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En 2015, 5,9 millions d'enfants de moins de cinq ans sont décédés (1). Les principales causes de mortalité infantile dans le monde sont la pneumonie, la prématurité, les complications durant l'accouchement, la septicémie néonatale, les anomalies congénitales, la diarrhée, les tra...umatismes accidentels et le paludisme (2). La plupart de ces maladies et de ces problèmes sont, du moins en partie, causés par l'environnement. On a estimé en 2012 que 26 % des décès infantiles et 25 % de la charge totale de morbidité des enfants de moins de cinq ans pourraient être évités par la réduction des risques environnement aux tels que la pollution de l'air, l'insalubrité de l'eau, les mauvaises conditions d'hygiène et d'assainissement ou les produits chimiques.
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The Mapping Antimicrobial Resistance and Antimicrobial Use Partnership (MAAP) project has conducted a multi-year, multi-country study that provides stark insights on the under-reported depth of the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis across Africa and lays out urgent policy recommendations to addr...ess the emergency.
MAAP reviewed 819,584 AMR records from 2016-2019, from 205 laboratories across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. MAAP also reviewed data from 327 hospital and community pharmacies and 16 national-level AMC datasets.
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Bulletin of the World Health Organization; http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.16.176677
This is the sixth of our 11-paper supplement entitled “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of New Era”. Expectations of community health workers (CHWs) have expanded in recent years to encompass a wider array
of services to numerous subpopulations, engage communities to collaborate with and to... assist health systems in responding to complex and sometimes intensive threats. In this paper, we explore a set of key considerations for training of CHWs in response to their enhanced and changing roles and provide actionable recommendations based on
current evidence and case examples for health systems leaders and other stakeholders to utilize.
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