The World Health Statistics series is WHO’s annual snapshot of the state of the world’s health. This 2018 edition contains the latest available data for 36 health-related Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators. It also links to the three SDG-aligned strategic priorities of the WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work: achieving universal health coverage, addressing health emergencies and promoting healthier populations. The latest data available shows that less than half the people in the world today get all of the health services they need. In 2010, almost 100 million people were pushed into extreme poverty because they had to pay for health services out of their own pockets. 13 million people die every year before the age of 70 from cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and cancer – most in low and middle-income countries.
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IHS, the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam is launching their 1st MOOC (Massive Open Online Course): “Planning for Climate Change in African Cities”. Developed in collaboration with the African Local Governments Academy (ALGA), United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG) and Erasmus University Rotterdam, this free MOOC is 5 weeks and it offers the basics of urban resilience and adaptation, climate change planning, and policy assessment tools. The course is open to students and professionals in the fields of urban planning, environmental science, climate change, and other related fields.
This document aims to lead program managers, planners, and decision-makers through a strategic process to identify effective investments for engaging men in efforts to improve sexual and reproductive health. In this guide, male engagement refers to the involvement of men and boys in family planning programs across life stages, including addressing gender norms and gender equality. The guide follows four steps; defining the behavioural aim of the initiative, assessing men’s and boys’ knowledge and attitudes related to reproduction and contraception, assessing how gender norms affect male engagement in family planning, and identifying programming approaches that engage men and boys.
The Local government Community of Practice is a ‘virtual’ community that seeks to enable interaction on various gender and governance issues. Ideal for local government practitioners and academia this platform invokes participants to learn and share best practices, resources and critical thinking on gender and service delivery across the SADC region to bring ‘the local government we want’. Members are encouraged to make use of the Local Government Gender Score Card tool that measures the Centres of Excellence (COE) progress in gender mainstreaming and sensitive service delivery. Aligned is a newly developed Local Government Citizen’s Score Card that provides an opportunity for community members served by COE councils to assess and measure council’s progress towards achieving gender sensitive and responsive service delivery. The results from these tools aim to assist in strengthened policies and development projects that are implemented to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and SADC Gender Protocol Agenda 2030.
This manual is intended for health managers at all levels of the health systems. It is based on World Health Organization (WHO) 2013 guidelines for responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women. The manual primarily addresses public sector health services, but is also relevant for health services in the private sector, including services provided by nongovernmental organizations. It is intended for policy-makers, health services managers at hospital or health facility level who have responsibility for facility level planning as well as day-to-day coordination and management of services, and offers easy steps, practical tips and job aids to help plan and manage services.
Wikipedia is the world’s largest online and user-generated encyclopaedia, and its content has the potential to colour a global view of the world. But women are under-represented there, like in many other parts of society. Sweden is the first country in the world with a feminist foreign policy. The #Wikigap initiative and event is about realising this policy in both word and deed. #WikiGap gathers people around the world to add more content to Wikipedia about women figures, experts, role models and profiles in various fields. Now it is the turn for Zimbabwe. This initiative invites people to help close the internet gender gap by getting more Zimbabwean women featured on Wikipedia. It invites you to nominate a Zimbabwean woman - past and present- who should have a feature/article on Wikipedia.
The Health Systems Governance Collaborative is a group of practitioners, policy makers, academics, civil society representatives, agencies, decision-makers and other committed citizens seeking to connect and engage about important health systems governance issues. The Collaborative fosters creative and safe spaces to address health systems governance challenges and promote real impact on the ground. It offers a place to connect with the great variety of stakeholders in health systems governance worldwide, confront ideas, disseminate knowledge and share experiences. The Collaborative encourages people to engage through this online interactive platform, where they can participate in consultations and discussions.
This toolkit aims to help international health programs integrate a gender perspective in their monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities, measures, and reporting. It is designed for use by health program staff working in various health sectors (such as HIV; malaria; reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health; and tuberculosis), and for various health agencies and initiatives. The toolkit will support health program staff to integrate gender in their programs, projects, and M&E activities. Its objectives are to provide processes and tools for integrating gender in a health program’s M&E activities, guidance on facilitating communication with primary stakeholders on the importance of gender and M&E, and additional resources on gender-integrated programming and M&E.
The Academy for African Urban Diversity (AAUD) was launched at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) in November 2017. AAUD is a joint initiative of ACMS; the African Centre for Cities; and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. It brings together a cohort of post-fieldwork doctoral students exploring diversity in African cities to debate and theorize the political, social and economic processes surrounding Africa’s growing and diversifying cities. The initiative creates interdisciplinary engagement among young and senior scholars working on urban studies on the African continent and the collaboration will play a role in supporting the development of skills and knowledge of a new generation of Urban African scholars. The next workshop will be held in Göttingen, Germany in 2018. PhD applications are considered on a rolling basis throughout the year.
Health Systems Global Africa Region hosted a webinar on “how to submit a successful organised session abstract”, the recording of which is now available to watch online. The webinar offered tips on how participants can increase their chances of having their abstracts successfully accepted for an organised session at the Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Liverpool, October 2018 (HSR2018). It gives an overview of the importance of raising the profile of African health policy and systems research at HSR2018, and how organised sessions can be a powerful way of achieving this. It presents a brief overview, a series of short presentations, and a question and answer session with participants.
