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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 urges health planners and decision-makers influence multisectoral government action to prevent chronic diseases. It dispels the long-held misunderstandings about heart disease, stroke, cancer and other chronic diseases that have contributed to their global neglect. It states clearly that 80% of the 35 million chronic disease-related deaths in 2005 will occur in low and middle income countries, where they affect men and women at younger ages than in high income countries. Premature deaths in countries such as China, India and the Russian Federation are projected to cost billions of dollars over the next 10 years