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Seizing the opportunity on AIDS and health systems

OOMMAN, Nandini
BERNSTEIN, Michael
ROSENZWEIG, Steven
August 2008

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This is a comparison of donor interactions with national health systems in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia - specifically: the health information systems, the supply chain systems for essential medicines, and human resources for health. It focuses on the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank’s Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program

The active community engagement continuum

RUSSELL, Nancy
et al
July 2008

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The active community engagement continuum (ACE) provides a framework for analysing community engagement in reproductive health and family planning and the role the community plays in institutionalising lasting behaviour and social change. It involves a process that includes the sharing of information with stakeholders and the local community

Towards universal access : scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector : progress report 2008

WORLD HEALTH ORGNAIZATION (WHO)
JOINT UNITED NATIONS PROGRAMME ON HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND (UNICEF)
2008

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This report provides in-depth information on: treatment and care for people living with HIV; HIV testing and counselling; health sector interventions for HIV prevention; scaling up HIV services for women and children; strengthening health systems and health information; and towards universal access as the way forward

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)

1st Latin American conference on research and innovation for health : conference report, results and documents

LAUCIRICA, Jorge
2008

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This conference aimed to confront the challenge of how to ensure that research deals with a country’s health priorities and contributes to equitable development in Latin America. It focused on the development and strengthening of National Health Research Systems and the use of regional cooperation as a means of taking advantage of existing resources and reducing asymmetries

What works? interventions for maternal and child under nutrition and survival

BHUTTA, Zulfigar
et al
January 2008

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This article "reviews interventions that affect maternal and child undernutrition and nutrition-related outcomes. These interventions included promotion of breastfeeding; strategies to promote complementary feeding, with or without provision of food supplements; micronutrient interventions; general supportive strategies to improve family and community nutrition; and reduction of disease burden (promotion of handwashing and strategies to reduce the burden of malaria in pregnancy). (The authors) showed that although strategies for breastfeeding promotion have a large effect on survival, their effect on stunting is small"
The Lancet, Vol 371, Issue 9610

Violence against women and girls : a compendium of monitoring and evaluation indicators

BLOOM, Shelah
2008

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"This guide was developed for managers, organizations, and policy makers working in the field of VAW/G [Violence Against Women and Girls] program implementation and evaluation in developing countries, as well as for people who provide technical assistance to these individuals and organizations. Indicators were developed to measure the following areas within VAW/G : 1. Magnitude and characteristics of different forms of VAW/G (skewed sex rations, intimate partner violence, violence from someone other than an intimate partner, female genital cutting/mutilation and child marriage); 2. Programs addressing VAW/G by sector (health, education, justice/security, social welfare); 3. Under-documented forms of VAW/G and emerging areas (humanitarian emergencies, trafficking in persons, femicide), and preventing VAW/G (youth, community mobilization, working with men and boys). The indicators can also be used by programs that may not specifically focus on VAW/G, but include reducing levels of VAW/G as part of their aims. The indicators have been designed [to] address information needs that can be assessed with quantitative methods to measure program performance and achievement at the community, regional and national levels. While many of the indicators have been used in the field, they have not necessarily been tested in multiple settings"

Universal coverage of health services: tailoring its implementation

CARRIN, Guy
MATHAUER, Inke
XU, Ke
EVANS, David
2008

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In 2005, the Member States of WHO adopted a resolution encouraging countries to develop health financing systems capable of achieving and/or maintaining universal coverage of health services – where all people have access to needed health services without the risk of severe financial consequences. In doing this, a major challenge for many countries will be to move away from out-of-pocket payments, which are often used as an important source of fund collection. Prepayment methods will need to be developed or expanded but, in addition to questions of revenue collection, specific attention will also have to be paid to pooling funds to spread risks and to enable their efficient and equitable use. Developing prepayment mechanisms may take time, depending on countries’ economic, social and political contexts. Specific rules for health financing policy will need to be developed and implementing organizations will need to be tailored to the level that countries can support and sustain. In this paper we propose a comprehensive framework focusing on health financing rules and organizations that can be used to support countries in developing their health financing systems in the search for universal coverage.

The state of Africa's children 2008 : child survival

ROGERS, Kate
GEBRE-EGZIABHER, Hirut
2008

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This report complements UNICEF’s ‘State of the World’s Children 2008’. It considers progress towards the related Millennium Development Goals in the region and the main causes of child deaths. It considers health-care systems and community-based approaches to providing maternal and child health care and outlines priorities required to accelerate progress

Social determinants of health in countries in conflict : a perspective from the Eastern Mediterranean region

WATTS, Susan
SIDDIQI, Sameen
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO), Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
2008

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The objectives of this review are to: assess the impact of conflict on the health of people in affected countries of the Region; document how conflict affects social determinants, and thus results in adverse health outcomes; present the results of an innovative qualitative study that captures civilian suffering and resilience in a conflict setting, through collaboration with civil society organizations; identify some examples of activities and interventions that may help to mitigate the impact of these conflicts on the health and well-being of affected populations; and identify policy implications. The study identifies three social determinants that have a bearing on health and are peculiar to a conflict setting: the loss of human rights, breaches of medical neutrality, and progression from stress to distress and disease that results from constant, unremitting exposure to a life-threatening situation. This review was requested by the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

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