Books by "World Health Organization. Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean"
8 books found
Sixth Emergency Medical Teams Global Meeting report, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 5-7 November 2024
by World Health Organization
2025 · World Health Organization
The sixth Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Global Meeting was held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on 5–7 November, 2024. It was jointly organized by the WHO EMT secretariat and the Abu Dhabi Department of Health, supported by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health and Prevention. The EMT Global Meeting is a critical gathering of the global EMT Network and partners to exchange knowledge, advance solutions, and take collective action towards strengthening EMTs and health emergency surge response capacities and systems around the world. This year’s 3-day meeting convened over 1300 participants from 140 countries. The programme consisted of: plenary sessions, including a high-level strategic discussion on climate change and health emergencies; six regional group meetings; 31 technical sessions across four tracks, reflecting the four strategic objectives of the EMT 2030 strategy; research abstract presentations; the first-ever EMT Global Innovation Champions; and an exhibition hall. There were three core, cross-cutting themes: EMT 2030 implementation, climate change and health, and research and innovation. This report provides a summary of the proceedings, discussions, and key outcomes from this EMT Global Meeting.
WHO guideline on self-care interventions for health and well-being, 2022 revision
by World Health Organization
2022 · World Health Organization
A global shortage of an estimated 18 million health workers is anticipated by 2030, a record 130 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and there is the global threat of pandemics such as COVID-19. At least 400 million people worldwide lack access to the most essential health services, and every year 100 million people are plunged into poverty because they have to pay for healthcare out of their own pockets. There is, therefore, an urgent need to find innovative strategies that go beyond the conventional health-sector response. These interventions are also relevant for all three areas of the Thirteenth General Programme of Work of the World Health Organization. WHO recommends self-care interventions for every country and economic setting as critical components on the path to reaching universal health coverage (UHC), promoting health, keeping the world safe and serving the vulnerable.
WHO guideline on self-care interventions for health and well-being
by World Health Organization
2021 · World Health Organization
Self-care interventions are among the most promising and exciting new approaches to improve health and well-being, both from a health systems perspective and for people who use these interventions. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. The scope of self-care as described in this definition includes health promotion; disease prevention and control; self-medication; providing care to dependent persons; seeking hospital/specialist/primary care if necessary; and rehabilitation, including palliative care. It includes a range of self-care modes and approaches. While this is a broad definition that includes many activities, it is important for health policy to recognize the importance of self-care, especially where it intersects with health systems and health professionals. Worldwide, an estimated shortage of 18 million health workers is anticipated by 2030, a record 130 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance, and disease outbreaks are a constant global threat. At least 400 million people worldwide lack access to the most essential health services, and every year 100 million people are plunged into poverty because they have to pay for health care out of their own pockets. There is an urgent need to find innovative strategies that go beyond the conventional health sector response. While "self-care" is not a new term or concept, self-care interventions have the potential to increase choice, when they are accessible and affordable, and they can also provide more opportunities for individuals to make informed decisions regarding their health and health care. In humanitarian settings, for example, due to lack of or limited health infrastructure and medical services in the crisis-affected areas, self-care could play an important role to improve health-related outcomes. Self-care also builds upon existing movements, such as task sharing, which are powerful strategies to support health systems.
Geographical differences in living standards are a pressing concern for policymakers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Economies of agglomeration mean that production is most efficient when concentrated in leading areas. So how can the region reduce spatial disparities in well-being without compromising growth? The solution to spatial disparities lies in matching the policy package to a lagging area s specific characteristics. Key questions include: is the lagging area problem really as serious as one thinks; is it a problem of low economic opportunity or of poor human development; are lagging area populations close enough to agglomerations to benefit from spillovers; and is there manifest private investor interest? Drawing on the World Bank s 2009 World Development Report, Reshaping Economic Geography, the book proposes 3 policy packages. First, all lagging areas can benefit from a level playing-field for development and investment in people. Geographic disparities in the policy environment are a legacy of MENA s history, and gaps in human development are a major component of spatial disparities. Smart policies for the investment environment, health, education, social transfers and urban development can therefore close spatial gaps in living standards. Second, lagging areas that are close to economic agglomeration can benefit from spillovers - provided that they are connected. MENA s expenditure priority is not necessarily long-distance primary connections, but infrastructure maintenance and short-distance connections such as rural roads and peri-urban networks. Public-private partnerships can also bring electronic connectivity to lagging areas. Third, shifting regional development policy away from spatial subsidies towards the facilitation of cluster-based growth will increase the chance of cost-effective impacts. The final chapter of the book examines the institutional prerequisites for effective spatial policy. It argues that MENA s centralized/sectoral structures are not always adapted to governments spatial development agendas, and describes alternative institutional options.
Intention to action series: regional reflections. Analysis from informal regional consultations with people living with noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions
by World Health Organization
2023 · World Health Organization
World Health Statistics 2007
2007 · World Health Organization
The third edition of this annual publication presents the most recent health data for the 193 WHO member states, based on an expanded set of 50 health statistics, with a new section of 10 statistical highlights in global public health for the past year. The data has been selected on the basis of relevance for global health, availability and quality of data, and accuracy and comparability of estimates, and collated from WHO publications and databases of technical programmes and regional offices. It also contains statistics on the distribution of selected health outcomes and interventions within countries, disaggregated by gender, age, urban/rural setting, wealth/assets, and educational level, which are primarily derived from the analysis of household surveys and available for a limited number of countries.
This new publication from the World Health Organization and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) contains information on nurses working in various mental health settings, including data grouped by geographic region and by country income levels. The information is based on a questionnaire survey conducted in 172 countries around the world which also collected information on undergraduate and graduate level mental health training for nurses.
Application of the essential public health functions
by World Health Organization
2024 · World Health Organization
Experience with public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrates that weak public health capacities leave populations and health, economic, and social systems vulnerable. Health system challenges are increasing in number and complexity, while health system resourcing, often seen as a cost rather than an investment, remains inadequate. The limited resources available are skewed towards clinical services and emergency response, leaving persistent weaknesses in preventive, promotive and protective capacities. World Health Assembly resolution WHA69.1 of 2016 provided the World Health Organization (WHO) with a mandate to support Member States to strengthen the essential public health functions (EPHFs) while recognizing their critical role in achieving universal health coverage. This has been reaffirmed in the Declaration of Astana on Primary Health Care, 2018, and by global partners since, creating an impetus towards and need for guidance in strengthening public health stewardship and capacities informed by the EPHFs. This technical package provides a range of technical resources and flexible tools in relation to EPHFs, to support comprehensive operationalization of public health in countries. The unified list of essential public health functions (EPHFs) consists of 12 activities that can be used to operationalize public health in a country. This comprehensive approach to public health orients health systems to population need and health system risks, and governments and societies towards health and well-being. This maximizes health gains within available resources and builds resilience, while reducing population vulnerability and the overall burden on the health system. The EPHFs can be used to plan public health systems, strengthen stewardship and coordination for public health delivery at national and subnational levels, and integrate public health capacities within health and allied sectors. The EPHFs anchor protective, promotive and preventive capacities within health systems while leveraging multisectoral efforts for health. In this way, strengthening health systems with the EPHFs is central to the primary health care approach and supports the achievement of universal health coverage, health security and healthier populations in tandem.