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Closing the gap in a generation : health equity through action on the social determinants of health|Final report of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2008

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This is the final report of the World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (2005-2008). The report gives three main recommendations: 1 improve daily living conditions 2. Tackle the inequitable distribution of power, money, and resources 3. Measure and understand the problem and assess the impact of action. The Commission was created to provide evidence on policies that improve health by addressing the social conditions in which people live and work. The report is addressed to WHO, national governments, civil society, and other global organizations

Manual for the health care of children in humanitarian emergencies

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2008

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These guidelines are to assist in the care of children in emergencies. They are designed to serve as a reference manual for the evaluation and management of children in emergencies, and as the basis for the training of health care workers. The target audience is first level health workers who provide care to children under the age of 5 years. Physicians and health care workers with more advanced training are referred to the WHO Pocket Book of Hospital Care for Children: Guidelines for the Management of Common Illnesses with Limited Resources (2005)

Older persons in emergencies : an active ageing perspective

PLOUFFE, Louise
2008

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This report considers the contribution that older people can make during natural or conflict-related emergencies and in reconstruction phases. It describes the converging trends of rapid growth of the population over 60 years of age and of health emergencies, and outlines the resulting challenges. It then outlines the basic elements of emergency planning, drawing on case studies to identify the impacts of these situations on older people; it looks at the WHO Active Ageing policy framework; and offers a policy response

The Kampala declaration and agenda for global action

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
GLOBAL HEALTH WORKFORCE ALLIANCE
2008

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This resource contains both the Kampala declaration and an agenda for global action to "guide the initial steps in a coordinated global, regional and national response to the worldwide shortage and mal-distribution of health workers, moving towards universal access to quality health care and improved health outcomes. It is meant to unite and intensify the political will and commitments necessary for significant and effective actions to resolve this crisis, and to align efforts of all stakeholders at all levels around solutions"

World health report 2008|Primary health care : now more than ever

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2008

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This report considers four sets of reforms that reflect a convergence between the values of primary health care, the expectations of citizens and the common health performance challenges that cut across all contexts. These include: universal coverage reforms, service delivery reforms, public policy reforms, and leadership reforms. "While universally applicable, these reforms do not constitute a blueprint or a manifesto for action. The details required to give them life in each country must be driven by specific conditions and contexts, drawing on the best available evidence"

Maternal mental health and child health and development in low and middle income countries : report of the meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland 30 January - 1 February 2008

BERTOLOTE, Dr José M
et al
2008

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This report presents information about maternal mental health and child health in developing countries. Summaries are given of the meeting presentations and discussions, as well as the main conclusions and recommendations. This resource is useful for people interested in maternal mental health and child health in developing countries
WHO-UNFP Meeting
Geneva, Switzerland
30 Jan - Feb 2008

Rapid assessment of alcohol and other substance use in conflict-affected and displaced populations : a field guide

EZARD, Nadine
2008

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This guide outlines the steps for planning and conducting rapid assessments of alcohol and other substance use among conflict-affected and displaced populations. It also details information for action plans and report writing, as well as key resources and annexes with sample forms. This guide is useful for practitioners and researchers to conduct rapid assessments of alcohol and other substance use in conflict-affected and displaced populations

WHO ethical and safety recommendations for researching, documenting and monitoring sexual violence in emergencies

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
June 2007

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This document builds on previous WHO publications and explores the different reasons for collecting information about sexual violence in emergency situations. It applies to all forms of enquiry about sexual violence and makes a number of recommendations that are intended to ensure that the necessary safety and ethical safeguards are in place at the beginning of any information gathering exercise. The document sets out the key safety and ethical issues that need to be addressed and the questions that need to be asked. There are examples of good practice and details of further information and resources that are available. This document is not intended to be a standalone guidance document but is designed to complement existing internationally-agreed ethical guidelines for research and to inform ethics review processes

Global age-friendly cities : a guide

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2007

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Informed by WHO's approach to active ageing, the purpose of this guide is to engage cities to become more age-friendly so as to tap the potential that older people represent for humanity. An age-friendly city encourages active ageing by optimising opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance the quality of life of older people. Working with groups on 33 cities in all WHO regions, WHO asked older people in focus groups to describe the advantages and barriers they experience in 8 areas of city living. The results from these led to the development of a set of age-friendly city checklists

Key steps for maternal and newborn health care in humanitarian crisis

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO), DEPARTMENT OF MAKING PREGNANCY SAFER
2007

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This document has been prepared for maternal and newborn health experts as well as reproductive health experts coordinating and assisting with emergency care during the humanitarian crisis. It describes the ways to estimate the number of pregnant women and those who are about to deliver, highlights some important aspects of emergency care related to pregnancy, childbirth and newborn care, and describes the content of UN kits for such care in three different scenarios

Community health workers : what do we know about them?|The state of the evidence on programmes, activities, costs and impact on health outcomes of using community health workers

LEHMANN, Uta
SANDERS, David
January 2007

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"This review paper revisits questions regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of community health worker programmes. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization as a follow-up to the 'World health report 2006: working together for health', which identified as a research priority the feasibility of successfully engaging community health workers. This review aims to assess the presently existing evidence. It constitutes a desktop review, very broad in scope, as is evident from the title, which draws together and assesses the evidence as it can be found in the published and selected grey literature since the late 1970s"

Sound choices : enhancing capacity for evidence-informed health policy

GREEN, Andrew
BENNETT, Sara
2007

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This review addresses a mismatch between what is known about how to respond to particular health problems in poor economies and what is actually done about them. It focuses on one cause of the problems that ensue from the mismatch -capacity constraints. Weak capacity at a number of levels in the institutions and interfaces between knowledge generation and use in policy-making has been identified by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) as a key strategic issue in addressing health care in low-income countries

Danger signs of neonatal illnesses : perceptions of caregivers and health workers in northern India

AWASTHI, Shally
VERMA, Tuhina
AGARWAL, Monica
October 2006

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This article explores the "household practices that can affect neonatal health, from the perspective of caregivers and health workers; to identify signs in neonates leading either to recognition of illness or health-care seeking; and to ascertain the proportion of caregivers who recognize the individual items of the integrated management of neonatal and childhood illnesses (IMNCI) programme"
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(10)

IMCI : what can we learn from an innovation that didn’t reach the poor?

GWARTKIN, Davidson
October 2006

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In this editorial, the author comments on the feasibility of the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) strategy of the World Health Organization aimed at serving the poor. He analyses the reasons behind the failure of IMCI strategy to reach the poor. According to the author, IMCI failed due to several faults in its implementation including its initiation in well-off areas, a horizontal approach, and bad financial infrastructure of the poor regions
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(10)

Working together for health : the world health report 2006

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
2006

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"The 'World Health Report 2006 - Working together for health' contains both an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and an ambitious set of proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately"

Medicine prices surveys and proposed interventions to improve sustainable access to affordable medicines in 6 sub-Saharan African countries|Etudes des prix des medicaments et interventions proposeees pur ameliorer durablement l'acces aux medicaments dan

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2006

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This document brings together the outcomes of six surveys into medicine prices - for Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Tanzania, Chad and Uganda - and one for the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) . The reports for Mali and Chad are written in French and the others in English

Helmets : a road safety manual for decision makers and practitioners

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2006

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"This manual provides practical advice to road safety practitioners on how to achieve a much higher proportion of users of two-wheeled vehicles wearing helmets. It follows on from the World report on road traffic injury prevention, which described evidence that setting and enforcing mandatory helmet use is an effective intervention for reducing injuries and fatalities among two-wheeler users. The manual is one of a series of documents produce by an informal consortium (WHO, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the World Bank, and the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society) that aims to provide guidance to countries on how to implement some of the recommendations identified within the World Report, and thus improve their overall road safety record"

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