Health Equity: 07/07/12

Saturday, July 7, 2012

[EQ] Update on New Tool being Developed on Social Determinants of Health

Update on New Tool being Developed on Social Determinants of Health

ACTION:SDH at: www.actionsdh.org .

This tool is being brought to the public health community by the World Health Organization with the aim of providing public health, and other practitioners on the social determinants of health, with a one-stop portal, it was launched at the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in October 2011.

ACTION:SDH houses knowledge on the social determinants according to the five action areas of the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health that was ratified by the 65th World Health Assembly (WHR 65.8) in May 2012.

During the first half of 2012, several contributors have strengthened the content of the ACTION:SDH portal through adding web pages on implementation (e.g. legislation in Norway), describing tools used (e.g. Government of Québec), and organizing discussion forums (e.g. current forums sponsored by the Government of Québec, Canada, focus on the upcoming 12^th International Conference on Health Impact Assessment). Public health practitioners are encouraged to visit the web site and to share experiences of how to address health determinants and to promote health equity.

Some links:

http://www.actionsdh.org/Contents/Action/Governance/Building_governance/Health_in_All_Policies_approach3.aspx

http://www.actionsdh.org/Contents/Sector_Linkages/Education3/Education__health___development.aspx

http://www.actionsdh.org/Contents/Action/Governance/Public_health_legislation/Norway.aspx

World Health Organization WHO
Geneva Switzerland

KMC/2012/SDE
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[EQ] The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012

The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012

Inter-Agency and Expert Group on MDG

Indicators led by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat
UNDP - 2 July 2012

Available online PDF [72p.] at:
http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/MDG/english/The_MDG_Report_2012.pdf

“……This year’s report on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) highlights several milestones.

The target of reducing extreme poverty by half has been reached five years ahead of the 2015 deadline, as has the target of halving the proportion of people who lack dependable access to improved sources of drinking water.

Conditions for more than 200 million people living in slums have been ameliorated—double the 2020 target. Primary school enrolment of girls equalled that of boys, and we have seen accelerating progress in reducing child and maternal mortality…”

Three important targets on poverty, slums and water have been met three years ahead of 2015, says this year’s Report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Meeting the remaining targets, while challenging, is possible ─ but only if Governments do not waiver from their commitments made over a decade ago.

Achieving the MDGs by 2015 is challenging but possible. Much depends on the fulfilment of MDG-8—the global partnership for development. The current economic crises besetting much of the developed world must not be allowed to decelerate or reverse the progress that has been made. Let us build on the successes we have achieved so far, and let us not relent until all the MDGs have been attained…..”

Highlights

•Extreme poverty is falling in every region

•The poverty reduction target was met

•The world has met the target of halving the proportion of people without access to improved sources of water

•The world has achieved parity in primary education between girls and boys

KMC/2012/SDE
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Thank you.

[EQ] Adolescent mental health: mapping actions of nongovernmental organizations and other international development organizations

Adolescent mental health:
mapping actions of nongovernmental organizations and other international development organizations

World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). June 2012

Chiara Servili, Child and adolescent mental health at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse

Available online PDF [50p.] at: http://bit.ly/Nd2KnJ

“………..describes actions undertaken by a range of international development organizations to address adolescents’ mental health needs at country level.

Adolescent mental health is inadequately addressed by international development organizations and actions at country level appear to be fragmented. Interventions for promotion of psychosocial well-being and provision of mental health care to adolescents often have narrowly-focused, project-specific objectives, while opportunities to mainstream adolescent mental health in education, health and child protection programmes are still largely untapped…”

“…..The mapping exercise entailed the collection and utilization of data from diverse and complementary sources comprised:
(a) a desk review of technical documents addressing adolescent mental health (e.g. technical reports, bulletins, website contents, peer-reviewed articles etc.); and
(b) a key informants survey with programme managers responsible for projects relevant to adolescent mental health at international organizations.

Triangulation of data was adopted with data from desk review and key informants' survey contributing to the overall mapping of actions by international actors in the field of adolescent mental health.

In addition, preliminary data obtained through the desk review informed and guided the development of the key informants' questionnaire and highlighted critical thematic areas that required more in-depth investigation.

(a) Desk review - An online search was performed for technical documents, grey and published literature related to adolescent mental health actions undertaken by international organizations (both country implementation and normative work). Additional information was collected by interrogating key informants about potentially useful technical materials they were aware of. Reviewed documents included scientific papers, technical reports, organizational websites, advocacy, planning and capacity building tools, and bulletins (see Annex 4).

(b) Key informants survey A brief semi-structured questionnaire was submitted to programme officers responsible for adolescent mental health initiatives relevant to adolescent mental health at international organizations.

Topics investigated included

i) programmes and interventions implemented in the period 2000–2010 that address adolescents' mental health and psychosocial well-being in diverse settings (including school, community and primary health care);
ii) strategic documents, guidelines, advocacy materials and training tools relevant for adolescent mental health;
iii) partnerships in the field of adolescent mental health; iv) perceived challenges, opportunities and priorities for future actions.

Information collected through the desk review and key informants' survey was compiled in summary tables and
analysed according to the following thematic areas:

a) Adolescent mental health (AMH) actions, programmes and interventions at all levels (global, regional and country levels)

b) Technical/normative tools contributing to adolescent mental health and psychosocial well-being (including advocacy tools, planning tools, policies/strategies, guidelines, capacity building materials, and health promotion tools).

c) Operational researches/situation analysis/needs assessments on issues related to adolescent mental health and psychosocial well-being.

d) Partnerships relevant to adolescent mental health ….”

KMC/2012/SDE
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