Improving breastfeeding support through the implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital and Community Initiatives: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Improved breastfeeding practices have the potential to save the lives of over 823,000 children under 5 years old globally every year. The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) is a global campaign by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund, which promotes best practice to support breastfeeding in maternity services. The Baby-Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) grew out of step 10, with a focus on community-based implementation. The aim of this scoping review is to map and examine the evidence relating to the implementation of BFHI and BFCI globally. METHODS: This scoping review was conducted according to the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. Inclusion criteria followed the Population, Concepts, Contexts approach. All articles were screened by two reviewers, using Covidence software. Data were charted according to: country, study design, setting, study population, BFHI steps, study aim and objectives, description of intervention, summary of results, barriers and enablers to implementation, evidence gaps, and recommendations. Qualitative and quantitative descriptive analyses were undertaken. RESULTS: A total of 278 articles were included in the review. Patterns identified were: i) national policy and health systems: effective and visible national leadership is needed, demonstrated with legislation, funding and policy; ii) hospital policy is crucial, especially in becoming breastfeeding friendly and neonatal care settings iii) implementation of specific steps; iv) the BFCI is implemented in only a few countries and government resources are needed to scale it; v) health worker breastfeeding knowledge and training needs strengthening to ensure long term changes in practice; vi) educational programmes for pregnant and postpartum women are essential for sustained exclusive breastfeeding. Evidence gaps include study design issues and need to improve the quality of breastfeeding data and to perform prevalence and longitudinal studies. CONCLUSION: At a national level, political support for BFHI implementation supports expansion of Baby-Friendly Hospitals. Ongoing quality assurance is essential, as is systematic (re)assessment of BFHI designated hospitals. Baby Friendly Hospitals should provide breastfeeding support that favours long-term healthcare relationships across the perinatal period. These results can help to support and further enable the effective implementation of BFHI and BFCI globally.

Special Issue "Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: An Interdisciplinary Approach".

The UN member states adopted three international agreements for the post-2015 agenda: the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [...].

Coordinating risk communication and community engagement for a better COVID-19 response in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) is crucial for effective public health emergency response, with coordination of RCCE essential to avoiding duplication, resource wastage and possible confusion at community level. We describe the structure and operational modalities of the regional RCCE coordination mechanism for COVID-19 in Eastern and Southern Africa since the declaration of the first cases in countries in the region in March 2020. Under the co-leadership of UNICEF and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), more than 30 agencies including UN agencies, Non-Government organisations, media and interfaith councils shared information on their interventions and support to the regional COVID-19 response. The technical working group has facilitated the development of joint guidance and reports. The group also shared monthly community feedback reports, Fact sheets, Theme specific Guidance Notes, media webinars and Social science evidence reviews from the sub-working groups. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provided complementary resources to strengthen the regional coordination and tailored support to country RCCE response processes. This manuscript documents a regional approach to RCCE coordination for public health emergency response for potential replication and knowledge to inform and guide future RCCE for preparedness and response at regional level.

One health systems strengthening in countries: Tripartite tools and approaches at the human-animal-environment interface.

Unexpected pathogen transmission between animals, humans and their shared environments can impact all aspects of society. The Tripartite organisations-the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)-have been collaborating for over two decades. The inclusion of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with the Tripartite, forming the 'Quadripartite' in 2021, creates a new and important avenue to engage environment sectors in the development of additional tools and resources for One Health coordination and improved health security globally. Beginning formally in 2010, the Tripartite set out strategic directions for the coordination of global activities to address health risks at the human-animal-environment interface. This paper highlights the historical background of this collaboration in the specific area of health security, using country examples to demonstrate lessons learnt and the evolution and pairing of Tripartite programmes and processes to jointly develop and deliver capacity strengthening tools to countries and strengthen performance for iterative evaluations. Evaluation frameworks, such as the International Health Regulations (IHR) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, the WOAH Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway and the FAO multisectoral evaluation tools for epidemiology and surveillance, support a shared global vision for health security, ultimately serving to inform decision making and provide a systematic approach for improved One Health capacity strengthening in countries. Supported by the IHR-PVS National Bridging Workshops and the development of the Tripartite Zoonoses Guide and related operational tools, the Tripartite and now Quadripartite, are working alongside countries to address critical gaps at the human-animal-environment interface.

Developing a conceptual framework for the health protection of United Nations peacekeepers against the COVID-19 pandemic from global health perspectives.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed particular health risks to United Nations peacekeepers, which require prompt responses and global attention. Since the health protection of United Nations peacekeepers against the COVID-19 pandemic is a typical global health problem, strategies from global health perspectives may help address it. From global health perspectives, and referring to the successful health protection of the Chinese Anti-Ebola medical team in Liberia, a conceptual framework was developed for the health protection of United Nations peacekeepers against the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this framework, the features include multiple cross-borders (cross-border risk factors, impact, and actions); multiple risk factors (Social Determinants of Health), multiple disciplines (public health, medicine, politics, diplomacy, and others), and extensive interdepartmental cooperation. These strategies include multiple phases (before-deployment, during-deployment, and post-deployment), multi-level cooperation networks (the United Nations, host countries, troop-contributing countries, the United Nations peacekeeping team, and United Nations peacekeepers), and concerted efforts from various dimensions (medical, psychological, and social).

Did Covid-19 lockdown positively affect the urban environment and UN- Sustainable Development Goals?

This work quantifies the impact of pre-, during- and post-lockdown periods of 2020 and 2019 imposed due to COVID-19, with regards to a set of satellite-based environmental parameters (greenness using Normalized Difference Vegetation and water indices, land surface temperature, night-time light, and energy consumption) in five alpha cities (Kuala Lumpur, Mexico, greater Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Toronto). We have inferenced our results with an extensive questionnaire-based survey of expert opinions about the environment-related UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Results showed considerable variation due to the lockdown on environment-related SDGs. The growth in the urban environmental variables during lockdown phase 2020 relative to a similar period in 2019 varied from 13.92% for Toronto to 13.76% for greater Mumbai to 21.55% for Kuala Lumpur; it dropped to -10.56% for Mexico and -1.23% for Sao Paulo city. The total lockdown was more effective in revitalizing the urban environment than partial lockdown. Our results also indicated that Greater Mumbai and Toronto, which were under a total lockdown, had observed positive influence on cumulative urban environment. While in other cities (Mexico City, Sao Paulo) where partial lockdown was implemented, cumulative lockdown effects were found to be in deficit for a similar period in 2019, mainly due to partial restrictions on transportation and shopping activities. The only exception was Kuala Lumpur which observed surplus growth while having partial lockdown because the restrictions were only partial during the festival of Ramadan. Cumulatively, COVID-19 lockdown has contributed significantly towards actions to reduce degradation of natural habitat (fulfilling SDG-15, target 15.5), increment in available water content in Sao Paulo urban area(SDG-6, target 6.6), reduction in NTL resulting in reducied per capita energy consumption (SDG-13, target 13.3).

The Relationship between Social Mentality and Health in Promoting Well-Being and Sustainable City.

In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), people's social mentality and mental health have been severely affected, which has hindered or even reversed the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there is a lack of investigation into the potential relationship between social mentality and health, as well as of the comparison between different databases worldwide and in China, in the current context of COVID-19. Hence, the aim of this paper is to explore the research hotspots and development trends of social mentality and health in China and worldwide, while improving people's health, building a sustainable society, and facilitating the achieving of the SDGs. A bibliometric method is employed in this paper from a macro-quantitative and micro-qualitative perspective to explore the research hotspots and trends of social mentality and health in the world and China from the two databases, namely the English-language Web of Science (WOS) and the Chinese-language China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The results indicate that: (1) By using keyword co-occurrence and clustering analysis via the CiteSpace software bibliometric tool, 11 current research hotspots have been identified and studies are increasing in terms of using the Chinese language and the English language. (2) The current studies in the CNKI database mainly focus on the macro social environmental factors affecting social mentality and population research, while the studies in the WOS database pay more attention to social mentality and health in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic situation and a variety of professions. Hence, future research could explore the influencing factors and cultivation methods toward a healthy social mentality from the perspective of methodology and toward achieving SDG 3, providing healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, and SDG 11, building sustainable cities and communities in the post-pandemic COVID-19 era.

An exploration of anti-corruption and health in international organizations.

Corruption is a global wicked problem that threatens the achievement of health, social and economic development goals, including Sustainable Development Goal # 3: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. The COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting strain on health systems has heightened risks of corruption both generally and specifically within health systems. Over the past years, international organizations, including those instrumental to the global COVID-19 response, have increased efforts to address corruption within their operations and related programs. However, as attention to anti-corruption efforts is relatively recent within international organizations, there is a lack of literature examining how these organizations address corruption and the impact of their anti-corruption efforts. This study addresses this gap by examining how accountability, transparency, and anti-corruption are taken up by international organizations within their own operations and the reported outcomes of such efforts. The following international organizations were selected as the focus of this document analysis: the World Health Organization, the Global Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank Group. Documents were identified through a targeted search of each organization's website. Documents were then analyzed combining elements of content analysis and thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that accountability and transparency mechanisms have been employed by each of the four international organizations to address corruption. Further, these organizations commonly employed oversight mechanisms, including risk assessments, investigations, and audits to monitor their internal and external operations for fraud and corruption. All organizations used sanction strategies meant to reprimand identified transgressors and deter future corruption. Findings also demonstrate a marked increase in anti-corruption efforts by these international organizations in recent years. Though this is promising, there remains a distinct absence of evidence demonstrating the impact of such efforts on the prevalence and severity of corruption in international organizations.