This report addresses the impact of emergency shelter programs in the development of post-relief economies and in building incomes of affected populations. It provides a review and analysis of the available literature relevant to understanding the economic impact of emergency shelter programs, addit...ional research conducted by CHF International on income development of beneficiaries of emergency shelter programs, and the first steps toward rigorous and accurate measurement of the impact of these programs on the incomes of beneficiaries. Each of these analysis provides information useful to future programmers of relief assistance.
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Primary health care offers a cost–effective route to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). However, primary health-care systems are weak in many low- and middle-income countries and often fail to provide comprehensive, people-centred, integrated care. We analysed the primar...y health-care systems in 20 low- and middle-income countries using a semi-grounded approach. Options for strengthening primary health-care systems were identified by thematic content analysis. We found that: (i)despite the growing burden of noncommunicable disease, many low- and middle-income countries lacked funds for preventive services; (ii)community health workers were often under-resourced, poorly supported and lacked training; (iii)out-of-pocket expenditure exceeded 40% of total health expenditure in half the countries studied, which affected equity; and (iv)health insurance schemes were hampered by the fragmentation of public and private systems, underfunding, corruption and poor engagement of informal workers. In 14 countries, the private sector was largely unregulated. Moreover, community engagement in primary health care was weak in countries where services were largely privatized. In some countries, decentralization led to the fragmentation of primary health care. Performance improved when financial incentives were linked to regulation and quality improvement, and community involvement was strong. Policy-making should be supported by adequate resources for primary health-care implementation and government spending on primary health care should be increased by at least 1% of gross domestic product. Devising equity-enhancing financing schemes and improving the accountability of primary health-care management is also needed. Support from primary health-care systems is critical for progress towards UHC in the decade to 2030.
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The National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has developed the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) to enable effective water management in Indian states in the face of extreme water stress. The Index and this associated report are expected to: (1) establish a clear baseline and ben...chmark for state-level performance on key water indicators; (2) uncover and explain how states have progressed on water issues over time, including identifying high-performers and under-performers, thereby inculcating a culture of constructive competition among states; and, (3) identify areas for deeper engagement and investment on the part of the states. Eventually, NITI Aayog plans to develop the index into a composite, national-level data management platform for all water resources in India.
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This document proposes surveillance objectives and describes global standards for a minimal basic respiratory disease surveillance system for the monitoring of influenza. The agreement on objectives allows for the prioritization of the many facets of influenza that might be measured and tracked. Use... of international standards will enable Member States to understand how the epidemiology, transmission, and impact of influenza in their own countries differ from those of other Member States; in addition it will allow them to more easily interpret data gathered from other Member States
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The aim of the people-centred framework is to help countries to develop fully prioritized and budgeted NSPs based on a culture of making full use of the available data, which are aligned with national planning cycles and which provide the basis for a robust national response that can accelerate prog...ress towards the goal of ending TB. In addition, applying the framework for other possible applications according to the country’s planning and policy cycle encourages the culture of data utilization and evidence translation into decision making and planning.
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The Feedback Starter-Kit responds to key questions ( ) and provides the most important tips ( ) for setting up and running a simple feedback mechanism. At the end of this document there is an overview of the templates needed to plan the mechanism and collect, answer, analyse and share community feed...back data. These templates contain the necessary basic elements to implement and run a feedback mechanism.
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Senegal’s substantial and sustained progress against malaria is an inspiring public health success story, and a source of potential lessons for other countries on the path to elimination. This case study describes three major success factors—(1) outstanding leadership and partner engagement, (2)... the achievement and maintenance of high intervention coverage levels, and (3) a thriving data culture—and explores several exciting new opportunities to consolidate and expand upon Senegal’s two decades of impact.
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The Rwanda Malaria Strategic Plan 2020–2024 outlines Rwanda’s national strategy to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality by at least 50% compared to 2019 levels. The vision is a malaria-free Rwanda contributing to socioeconomic development.
The plan includes strengthening prevention through lo...ng-lasting insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, and larval source management; ensuring universal access to testing and treatment; improving surveillance and data use; and enhancing program management, coordination, and financing. It also emphasizes community engagement and behavior change to ensure at least 85% of the at-risk population adopts protective practices.
The strategy builds on past lessons, involves multi-sectoral collaboration, and aligns with global malaria goals. It highlights equity, quality services, and evidence-based interventions as guiding principles, aiming to mobilize national and international resources for sustained impact.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for Ebola disease outbreaks. The toolkit conta...ins: information about Ebola disease; RCCE considerations on how to approach key issues during Ebola disease outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which Ebola disease outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into the planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support prevention and response interventions; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers, and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for yellow fever outbreaks. The toolkit conta...ins: information about yellow fever; RCCE considerations for how to approach key issues during yellow fever outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which yellow fever outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support vector control and immunization campaigns; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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This toolkit is a comprehensive set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers, and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for yellow fever outbreaks. The toolkit conta...ins: information about yellow fever; RCCE considerations for how to approach key issues during yellow fever outbreaks; tools for understanding the context in which yellow fever outbreaks occur; methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into planning and implementation of activities; guidance to support vector control and immunization campaigns; and links to existing RCCE tools and training. It is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas.
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The Guidelines for the Use of the APCA African Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) has been developed by the APCA, in collaboration with
stakeholders, to help appropriately trained health practitioners and researchers across the region to utilise the APCA African POS in their work place (Powell et... al, 2007; Warria et al, 2007). Not only do the guidelines provide a clear rationale for measuring palliative care outcomes, but they also outline practical information on how to use the tool to collect data and analyse its results. So why is there a need for these guidelines?
Palliative care as a concept and discipline is not well understood across Africa, and its development is still embryonic in many countries. While there are many obstacles that hinder palliative care development on the continent, a key challenge is the lack of accurate information about the palliative care being provided and its outcomes. The APCA African POS is a useful tool to help us measure these outcomes and, given that
measuring palliative care outcomes remains a relatively new concept, it is important to guide people on how to use the tool. Of course, these guidelines are not intended to address everything related to the measurement of palliative care outcomes; they contain only essential information for providers. More detailed information on the use of outcome tools, and in particular within the research setting, can be gained from contacting relevantly trained professionals.
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The document provides a standardized protocol for evaluating the Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN), a surveillance system used during humanitarian emergencies when regular national health surveillance may be disrupted. The purpose of EWARN is to detect outbreaks of communicable diseas...es early and enable rapid public health response. The guidance explains how the system should be assessed in terms of its structure, implementation, effectiveness, and usefulness. It outlines the key steps of evaluation: preparation, system description, data collection, and post-evaluation reporting. The protocol highlights common challenges observed in previous EWARN implementations, such as delays in establishing the system, limited data quality, weak outbreak response, and lack of clear transition plans back to routine surveillance systems. It emphasizes the need to evaluate both weekly disease reporting and alert verification processes, and to review attributes such as simplicity, data quality, timeliness, sensitivity, and stability. The document also provides templates for interviews, data review forms, and laboratory assessment, as well as guidance on conducting remote evaluations when access is limited. The overall goal of the protocol is to ensure that EWARN functions effectively to detect and respond to outbreaks and that practical recommendations are developed to improve the system’s performance and sustainability in emergency settings.
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The report aims to capture lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunity for more ambitious global action: expanding sustainable access to vaccines for all towards the Immunization Agenda 2030 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The report is organized i...n two sections: the first section provides WHO insights on global vaccine market dynamics, drawing from data provided by Member States, which are, in turn, analysed and displayed in the second section.
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Pathogen genomic surveillance has become a priority for public health systems in recent years. Genomic sequencing is increasingly being used to characterize pathogens and monitor important public health priorities (e.g. poliovirus, influenza virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae, ant...imicrobial resistance (AMR)). The decrease in cost and time of sequencing and the exponential development of bioinformatic pipelines have played a critical role in integrating pathogen genomics into routine public health surveillance. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the role that sequencing plays in the surveillance of infectious diseases. Sequencing facilitates earlier detection, more accurate investigation of outbreaks, closer real-time monitoring of pathogen evolution and tailored development and evaluation of interventions to inform local to global public health decision-making and action. However, there remains a need to coordinate efforts, leverage and link existing surveillance and laboratory networks and capabilities, and systematically integrate genetic sequence data (GSD) with clinical and epidemiological data to strengthen its utility.
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Nepal is on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health despite high levels of poverty, poor infrastructure, difficult terrain and recent conflict. Each year, nearly 35000 Nepali children die before their fifth birthday, with almost two-thirds of these deaths occurr...ing in the first month of life, the neonatal period. As part of a multi-country analysis, we examined changes for newborn survival between 2000 and 2010 in terms of mortality, coverage and health system indicators as well as national and donor funding.
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The report aims to capture lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and to highlight the opportunity for more ambitious global action: expanding sustainable access to vaccines for all towards
the Immunization Agenda 2030 and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The report is organized ...in two sections: the first section provides WHO insights on global vaccine market dynamics, drawing from data provided by Member States, which are, in turn, analysed and displayed in the second section.
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