This document provides guidance to African Union Member States on key mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) considerations in relation to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It contains useful guidance on MHPSS for the community, healthcare workers, caregivers of vulnerable po...pulations and people in quarantine, isolation or treatment centers(1)
(2). This guidance aims to provide practical steps to reduce stress, anxiety, stigma and psychological disorders associated with COVID-19 and improve overall mental health and well being. This guidance can be used for planning purposes by policy makers and Ministries of
health and institutions coordinating emergency response to COVID-19 response by Member States. It can also be disseminated to stakeholders.
more
Ce document est consolidé par OCHA pour le compte de l’Équipe humanitaire pays et des partenaires humanitaires. Il présente une compréhension commune de la crise, notamment les besoins humanitaires les plus pressants et le nombre estimé de personnes ayant besoin d’assistance. Il constitue u...ne base factuelle aidant à informer la planification stratégique conjointe de la réponse.
Les désignations employées et la présentation des éléments dans le présent rapport ne signifient pas l’expression de quelque opinion que ce soit de la part du Secrétariat des Nations unies concernant le statut juridique d’un pays, d’un territoire, d’une ville ou d’une zone ou de leurs autorités ou concernant la délimitation de ses frontières ou de ses limites.
more
En 2023, la nouvelle stratégie de Coopération de l’OMS avec le Niger 2023-2027 a été lancée, assortie d’un plan d’investissement. En outre, l’OMS a soutenu plusieurs initiatives majeures du pays, comme le lancement effectif de la Stratégie nationale de la Couverture Sanitaire Universel...le (CSU) 2023-2030, la mise à jour de la Stratégie nationale de financement de la santé, la mise en œuvre de la stratégie Triage, Évaluation et Traitement des Urgences pédiatriques (TETU) dans plusieurs régions. De nombreuses actions ont aussi été menées dans d’autres domaines, comme la riposte apportée à l’épidémie de diphtérie, le soutien continu à la vaccination de routine, l’appui au maintien de la chaine du froid pour les vaccins (menacée par l’interruption de la fourniture d’énergie), etc.
more
World Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;9(2):67-77.
The main recommendations are presented in relation to: the need for coordinated policies, plans and programmes, the requirement to scale up services for whole populations, the importance of promoting community awareness about mental illness to increase levels ...of help-seeking, the need to establish effective financial and budgetary provisions to directly support services provided in the community. The paper concludes by setting out a series of lessons learned from the accumulated practice of community mental health care to date worldwide, with a particular focus on the social and governmental measures that are required at the national level, the key steps to take in the organization of the local mental health system, lessons learned by professionals and practitioners, and how to most effectively harness the experience of users, families, and other advocates
more
The Facilitator Training Manual on Workplace Pandemic Preparedness is a guide developed by GIZ and the Ministry of Health to help organizations prepare for and respond to pandemics while ensuring business continuity. It provides structured guidance on training, risk assessment, prevention, and respo...nse strategies for both medical and non-medical personnel.
Key topics include pandemic preparedness and response, covering diseases like Influenza, Cholera, Yellow Fever, and Meningitis, as well as personal hygiene, risk communication, and business continuity planning. The manual emphasizes participatory learning, practical training, and leadership in crisis management, aiming to enhance institutional resilience and ensure workplaces remain safe and operational during health crises.
more
The health and socioeconomic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the countries of Latin America hard and laid bare the profound inequities about which numerous international, regional and national reports have sounded warnings in recent decades. In this context, the historical politica...l and economic exclusion and marginalization of the more than 800 indigenous peoples in the region has been accentuated as a result of insufficient State responses to the crisis, which have not adequately considered the collective rights of these peoples and have had little cultural relevance.
This document provides an overview of the situation of indigenous peoples in the region in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses both the State’s and indigenous peoples’ own responses to the crisis, as well as offering a set of recommendations to rectify the neglect of these peoples in the management of the pandemic, centring on their collective rights.
more
The EiE Competency Framework builds on the INEE Minimum Standards to articulate a set of required, valued and recognized competencies for the humanitarian and education in the emergencies sectors. It broadly describes expected standards of performance across a number of competencies that can be appl...ied to different roles within an organization or sector. The framework provides a common lexicon for core humanitarian and technical competencies and defines expected knowledge, skills and attributes for each.
The framework is intended to inform staff recruitment, learning and professional development, performance management, planning, and organizational design. It is a sector-wide guidance to advance the accountability, effectiveness, and predictability of educational preparedness, response and recovery for affected populations.
The framework is primarily intended for use by EiE practitioners in humanitarian contexts. However, it is also relevant at the global level or in development settings in support of planning and emergency preparedness. It is best used in conjunction with the Core Humanitarian Competency Framework (CHCF) and where applicable, the Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) Competency Framework. It is transferable across people, countries, and cultures and can be a valuable tool for entry-, mid-, and senior level professional development.
Available in English, Arabic, French, Portuguese and Spanish
more
Promoting and protecting the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of children, adolescents, and their caregivers remains undamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a direct contribution to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well- eing). In 2024, UNICEF accelerated the scale-up o...f integrated, multisectoral MHPSS programming. These efforts contributed to the strengthening of national and subnational child and adolescent mental health systems by supporting programming across the continuum of care, investing in workforce development, advancing data systems and evidence generation, and promoting institutional leadership and coordination mechanisms. UNICEF’s growing reach, particularly through health, education, and child protection systems, reflects a strategic commitment to embedding MHPSS in sustainable development frameworks and in responses that bridge humanitarian action and development programming.
more
Health workers involved in deployment and implementation of COVID-19 vaccination require vaccine-specific knowledge to ensure safe and efficient vaccine delivery. This training provides key information about COVID-19 vaccines through short instructional videos, vaccine explainers, job aids, topic br...iefings, and downloadable presentations. It builds on the COVID-19 vaccination training for health workers and the Orientation to National Deployment and Vaccination Planning for COVID-19.
Please note that further videos and resources concerning other vaccines will be added as they receive emergency use listing (EUL) or prequalification. Available in different languages
more
The report also provides country-specific examples showing how direct engagement translated into the adoption of concrete measures, including national legislation and policies. Finally, the report presents key recommendations aimed at intensifying the actions of the international and the humanitaria...n communities and strengthening the programmatic response to better target and address the needs and vulnerabilities of all children living in situations of armed conflict.
Full Report and Fact Sheet available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic
more
Developed as part of the UN Women–WHO Global Joint Programme on Violence Against Women Data, this briefing note focuses on the measurement of violence against women with disability and is one in a series of methodological briefing notes for strengthening the measurement and data collection of viol...ence against particular groups of women or specific aspects of violence against women.
The briefing note is meant for researchers, national statistics offices, and others involved in data collection on violence against women. It provides an overview of the challenges in the availability, measurement, and collection of data on violence against women with disability and outlines recommendations for good practice in measurement, with the aim of strengthening ongoing and future data collection efforts and increasing the availability of such data.
The inclusion of women with disability and the issue of disability within population-based surveys and research on violence against women is necessary for an improved understanding of populations of women at specific risk of violence. This knowledge would also allow more tailored prevention strategies and response/services and programmes to be designed in a way that addresses the specific needs of women with disability.
more
Flooding following Cyclone Idai in mid-March has now affected 270,000 people as of 30 March 2019.
• The most heavily affected areas are the districts of Chimanimani and Chipinge in Manicaland which have been isolated due to roads and bridges being washed away. Mashonaland East (Chikomba district)... and Masvingo (Zaka and Bikita districts) have also been affected.
• The flood response is being led by the Department of Civil Protection at the national and provincial levels.
• Two district command centres have been set up in Chimanimani and Chipinge. A logistics base has been set up in Mutare.
more
he UNFPA “Programmatic guidelines: Cash and Voucher Assistance in Sexual and Reproductive Health programming in Emergencies” explains how CVA can be effectively integrated into humanitarian responses to help women, girls, and other vulnerable groups access lifesaving and comprehensive SRH servic...es. Rooted in UNFPA’s mandate, this document provides practical direction for designing, implementing, and monitoring CVA within SRH programming.
The guidance highlights the barriers that hinder access to SRH care, such as affordability, availability, acceptability, and appropriateness, and illustrates how CVA can address financial obstacles by covering transport, user fees, or other indirect costs, while reinforcing health system strengthening efforts. CVA is presented as a complementary tool that supports both emergency and long-term SRH goals. Within humanitarian emergencies, it can contribute directly to achieving MISP objectives, including:
Enabling survivors of sexual violence to access clinical and psychosocial care;
Supporting the continuation of HIV and STI treatment, including coverage of transport;
Facilitating safe deliveries and emergency obstetric and newborn care; and
Removing financial barriers to voluntary family planning and contraceptive access, while ensuring informed choice and avoiding coercion.
Beyond the MISP, CVA also supports the transition to comprehensive SRH services in protracted emergencies and recovery phases. Examples include using cash or vouchers to encourage antenatal and postnatal care, ensure menstrual hygiene, sustain cancer prevention and treatment, fund obstetric fistula repair, and promote SRH education among adolescents.
more
Depuis que le COVID-19a été confirmé au Tchad le 19 mars et les premiers cas de transmissions communautaires, les autorités tchadiennes ont pris des mesures de prévention et de réponse qui ont des conséquences sur le contexte et la nature des opérations humanitaires. Ainsi, u...n ajustement des plans, des cibles et des besoins financiersdes clusterss’est révélé opportunpour répondre non seulement à la crise sanitaire mais aussi aux impacts indirects de la pandémie sur la situation de million de personnesdéjà ciblées par l’aide humanitaire avant l’apparition du COVID.
more
En Paraguay, la vacunación contra COVID-19 inició el 22 de febrero de 2021. Se han autorizado un total de siete vacunas: Bharat-Covaxin, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V- Gamaleya y CoronaVac-Sinovac. Los grupos prioritarios de vacunación están definidos según el Plan... Nacional de Vacunación contra COVID-19 en Paraguay
more
This chapter of the AMP LLIN Mass Campaign Toolkit outlines the strategic communication approaches that are essential before, during and after long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) distribution campaigns. It emphasises the importance of setting up a national communications sub-committee under ...the leadership of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) to coordinate advocacy, social mobilisation and behaviour change communication (BCC). The aim of these three components is to secure political and financial support, mobilise communities, and promote sustained net use through tailored, multi-channel messaging. Effective coordination and planning are critical for successful malaria prevention efforts.
more
This guidance note is meant to assist humanitarian actors, youth-led organizations, and young people themselves across sectors, working at local, country, regional, and global levels in their response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It begins diagnostically, exploring the impacts of coronavirus d...isease (COVID-19) on young people. It then proposes a series of actions that practitioners and young people can take to ensure that COVID-19 preparedness, response plans and actions, are youth-inclusive and youth-focused – with and for young people. Recommendations are structured around the five key actions of the Compact for Young People in Humanitarian Action: services, participation, capacity, resources, and data. Where available, the recommended actions are accompanied by resources and concrete examples, which can inform approaches and support implementation
more
This is a pre-deployment training, tailored specially to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, offered to WHO personnel, consultants, and key partners. The material covered in modules 1-4 is applicable and useful to frontline response workers, national and international. Only Module 5, which focuses on... operational aspects - the code of conduct for international civil servants and human resources arrangements for WHO deployees, are specifically geared to all internationally recruited personnel and to WHO deployees respectively
more
Version 2 (unedited). The Basic Needs Analysis (BNA) is a multi-sector needs analysis approach that can be applied in both sudden onset and protracted emergencies. The methodology comprises the Guidance (this document) presenting the conceptual BNA framework and related processes, and a Toolbox, whi...ch includes tools, templates, training materials, and examples drawn from its first pilot, in Borno State(Nigeria).
The BNA is conceived to go hand in hand with the Facilitator’s Guide for the Response Options Analysis and Planning (a separate document), as it is part of a broader response planning process (see The BNA within the ). It shall be carried out with other assessments on the operational environment and would not add any value if undertaken in isolation.
more