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The United Nation Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities upholds the rights of people with disabilities to access health services. The Disability- inclusive Health Services Toolkit: A Resource for Health Facilities in the Western Pacific Region supports the rights of people with disabilities to have the same access to health services as people without disabilities. The Toolkit provides practical guidance to managers and staff of health-care facilities and services, health policy-makers, and nongovernmental organizations on identifying and addressing barriers to health information and services. The Toolkit supports the achievement of universal health coverage (‎UHC)‎ by ensuring everyone can access health information and can benefit equally from health services.

Humanitarian and development partners have established a joint Incident Management Team (IMT) to support COVID-19 preparedness and response efforts in the Pacific. This coordination mechanism has successfully leveraged partners’ capacities and resources, and continues to coordinate their actions to ensure that effective support is provided to national authorities and the affected population.

A systematic literature review on the cost–effectiveness of emergency care interventions in low- and middle- income countries.

Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2020;98:341-35

http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.19.241158

There is great variation across countries regarding the rehabilitation needs of the population, characteristics of the health system and the challenges that face rehabilitation. For this reason, it is important for each country to identify their own priorities and develop a rehabilitation strategic plan. A rehabilitation strategic plan should seek to increase the accessibility, quality and outcomes of rehabilitation.

To assist countries to develop a comprehensive, coherent and beneficial strategic plan, WHO has developed Rehabilitation in health systems: guide for action. This resource leads governments through a four-phase process of (1) situation assessment; (2) strategic planning; (3) development of monitoring, evaluation and review processes; and (4) implementation of the strategic plan. This process utilizes health system strengthening practices with a focus on rehabilitation.

The Rehabilitation in health systems: guide for action provides practical help that directs governments through the four phases and twelve steps. The process can take place at national or subnational level. Typically phases 1 to 3 occur over a 12-month period, while phase 4 occurs over the period of the strategic plan, around 5 years. The four phases and accompanying guidance are outlined below

This report is the first global report on epilepsy summarising the available evidence on the burden of epilepsy and the public health response required at global, regional and national levels.

This report is a call for sustained and coordinated action to ensure that every person with epilepsy has access to the care and treatment they need, and the opportunity to live free from stigma and discrimination in all parts of the world. It is time to highlight epilepsy as a public health imperative, to strongly encourage investment in reducing its burden, and to advocate for actions to address gaps in epilepsy knowledge, care and research.

The manual is structured in three parts.

• Part One “Epidemics of the 21st century” provides vital insights on the main features of the 21st century upsurge and the indispensable elements to manage them.
• Part Two “Be in the know. 10 key facts about 15 deadly diseases” contains key information about 15 diseases (Ebola Virus Disease, Lassa Fever, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Yellow Fever, Zika, Chikungunya, Avian and Other Zoonotic Influenza, Seasonal Influenza, Pandemic Influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Cholera, Monkeypox, Plague, Leptospirosis and Meningococcal Meningitis). This section provides tips on the interventions required to respond to epidemics of all these diseases.
• Part Three “Tool boxes” gives an overview and summarized guidance on some other important topics, including: the role of WHO, the International Coordinating Group, laboratory diagnosis and shipment of infectious diseases substances, and vector control.

The handbook enables the three levels of WHO – its Headquarters, Regional Offices and Country Offices to work efficiently together by building the foundations of a shared conceptual and thinking framework, which includes common terminology. 

This document provides evidence-based, expert-informed recommendations and good practice statements to support health systems and stakeholders in strengthening and extending high-quality rehabilitation services so that they can better respond to the needs of populations. The recommendations are intended for government leaders and health policy-makers and are also relevant for sectors such as workforce and training. The recommendations and good practice statements may also be useful for people involved in rehabilitation research, service delivery, financing and assistive products, including professional organisations, academic institutions, civil society and nongovernmental and international organisations. The recommendations focus solely on rehabilitation in the context of health systems. They address the elements of service delivery and financing specifically. The recommendations were developed according to standard WHO procedures, detailed in the WHO handbook for guideline development

This report was presented to Member States at the World Health Assembly in May 2016 and is to be read in conjunction with A69/38: Draft global strategy on human resources for health: Workforce 2030. Report by the Secretariat. The vision of this work and report is to "Accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and the UN Sustainable Development Goals by ensuring equitable access to health workers within strengthened health systems". Objectives are "To optimise performance, quality and impact of the health workforce through evidence-informed policies on human resources for health, contributing to healthy lives and well-being, effective universal health coverage, resilience and strengthened health systems at all levels",  "To align investment in human resources for health with the current and future needs of the population and of health systems, taking account of labour market dynamics and education policies; to address shortages and improve distribution of health workers, so as to enable maximum improvements in health outcomes, social welfare, employment creation and economic growth", "To build the capacity of institutions at sub-national, national, regional and global levels for effective public policy stewardship, leadership and governance of actions on human resources for health" and "to strengthen data on human resources for health, for monitoring and ensuring accountability for the implementation of national and regional strategies, and the global strategy".  Global milestones by 2020 and 2030, policy options of Member States, responsibilities of the WHO Secretariat and recommendations to other stakeholders and international partners are discussed for each objective.

"This report takes stock of the main public financing for health trends over the past fifteen years in the African region, and highlights opportunities for accelerated progress toward universal health coverage (UHC) based on better-informed budget planning and utilization decisions. The report presents new evidence on the critical role played by domestic public financial management systems on the level, effectiveness and quality of public spending on health in Africa. It argues that these systems should be reconsidered if countries are to move towards UHC. Country experience in reforming public finance systems to support progress towards UHC indicates that success depends on more than simply increasing the level of public budgets. Rather, it requires appropriately targeted health budget allocations, complete execution of health’s public budgets, and improved efficiency in the use of public resources for health.

The report is composed of three sections. The first section is articulated around three policy highlights: aligning budget resources and health priorities; closing the gap between health budget allocation and expenditure; and maximizing UHC performance with the money available. Section 2 is dedicated to providing detailed health financing information on countries, and includes 48 country profiles focused on key health financing trends. The last section includes information on progress towards the development of health financing strategies in the region, as well as regional and country benchmarks on key health financing indicators"

WHO/HIS/HGF/Tech.Report/16.2