Guerre, dérèglement climatique et pandémie : sortir du mode crise

Presentations and Downloads of the MMS Symposium 2022

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

"The people of Ukraine are living through an horrendous urban armed conflict. Systematic evidence shows that, worldwide, when explosive weapons are used in populated areas 90% of those affected are civilians (AOAV, 2019). This pattern is very much evident in Ukraine, where 95% of civilian casualties have occurred in populated areas (AOAV, 2022). Bombing and shelling in Ukraine are directly harming the civilian population, who face a high risk of death, war-related injuries and psychological trauma, increasing the need for rehabilitation, mental health and psycho-social support (MHPSS), and other services. The vast majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) are women, girls and boys. 46% of displaced families include at least one person over 60, 36% include a chronically ill person and 25% include a person with disabilities."

• Handicap International

"Olga Savchenko est responsable des actions d'éducation aux risques liés aux munitions explosives en Ukraine. Elle nous a rendu visite à Genève à l’occasion de notre commémoration des 25 ans de Broken Chair. Elle témoigne de l’importance de son travail pour la population ukrainienne et de ce représente ce monument."

• Handicap International Schweiz

"Les États sont invités le 18 novembre à Dublin pour adopter l'accord international contre les bombardements en zones peuplées. Les États signeront l'accord contre l'utilisation des armes explosives en zones peuplées le 18 novembre à Dublin. De nombreux États se sont engagés à l'approuver. (...) Fin de trois ans de négociations diplomatiques: Lors de la dernière conférence, en juin dernier, 50 États ont finalisé le texte d'une déclaration politique sur l'utilisation des armes explosives en zones peuplées. Une majorité écrasante d'États a approuvé le texte final de cette déclaration."

• Handicap International Schweiz

"Ein bereits seit 2017 schwelender Konflikt im Norden von Mosambik ist mehrmals unbeachtet der Öffentlichkeit eskaliert. Mittlerweile haben sich über 800'000 Menschen weiter im Süden niedergelassen. Da in der Region grosse Armut herrscht, ist nicht nur das bereits sehr schwache Gesundheitssystem komplett überlastet, sondern auch der gesamte Druck auf die lokale Bevölkerung hoch. Obwohl die Region grosse Rohstoffschätze aufweist, ist die humanitäre Not gross. Seit 2017 treiben in den nördlichen und zentralen Küstenbezirken Cabo Delgados nicht-staatliche und schwer bewaffnete Gruppierungen ihr Unwesen. Dörfer werden überfallen, Menschen enthauptet. Laut der Konflikt-Beobachtungsstelle ACLED wurden seit 2017 mehr als 4’000 Menschen Opfer dieser Gewaltakte. Die bereits zuvor von Wirbelstürmen, Hunger und schwacher Gesundheitsversorgung stark gebeutelte Bevölkerung leidet."

• SolidarMed
• Webinar: Humanitäre Krise in Mosambik
• Download (pdf | 221 kB)

"Researchers at Swiss TPH have launched a new project focused on rabies control in Chad with the help of artificial intelligence. Read more about how the research project takes a transdisciplinary One Health approach and uses public engagement and multilingual communication to achieve results. Dog mediated rabies, although entirely preventable, kills every year over 25,000 people in Africa. It has been demonstrated that rabies transmission can be interrupted with successful dog mass vaccination in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad. However, most of the strategies to control and eliminate human rabies still stagnate mainly due to a lack of resources to support such interventions. One way that we can tackle rabies in Africa is by introducing relatively new, low-cost interventions, which is what our research project on Rabies Control in Chad aims to address."

• Swiss TPH

"Swiss TPH researchers tested two different drug combinations against the parasitic worm Trichuris trichiura on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Findings show that a new treatment combination (moxidectin and albendazole) is inferior compared to the current recommended treatment combination (ivermectin and albendazole). However, moxidectin might serve as an alternative in areas in which ivermectin is not readily available or potentially where there are resistances against ivermectin. Results were published on 28 October in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journal. More than 1.5 billion people worldwide are infected with soil-transmitted helminths. The infections occur mainly in tropical and subtropical areas in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China and East Asia and is closely linked to poverty. Infections can lead to nutrient deficiency, anaemia, and impaired growth, thus children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to these detrimental effects. Soil-transmitted helminth infections are caused by several species of parasitic worms. One of them is the whipworm Trichuris trichiura."

• Swiss TPH

"A city NGO has formed a boys' club to give them a space to open up and share their problems and vulnerabilities. Boys from the age of 10 to 20 meet once a week after school or college to share their doubts, problems of adolecents and are simultaneously sensitised about gender equality. The boys live in slums and most of them are first-generation learners. They pracitcally have no one at home with whom they can discuss their problems."

• Telegraph India

"Calcutta: Teachers who teach underprivileged children are being given training to not discriminate between students in their classroom or outside. Often teachers end up making some statements which leads to gender discrimination, knowingly or unknowingly, said one of the teaching heads in the NGO that is hosting the series of workshops. (...) We want to train our teachers to be more sensitive, said Ananya Chatterjee, school administrator, Calcutta Rescue."

• The Telegraph India

"With renewed vigor, Covid-19 continued its nefarious run in 2021. Like everyone else, development cooperation organizations had to face new challenges raised by this issue. The complications which effect any society during a pandemic, are amplified all the more for those with disabilities. With great enthusiasm, SwissLimbs rose to the occasion and endeavored to match the increase of requests which came our way. Thus, we began new projects in 4 countries: Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Malawi and Guinea-Bissau."

• SwissLimbs

Climate change, pandemic and war: these are huge and partly new challenges for organizations working in the field of international health cooperation. The 2022 series of MMI policy dialogues is related to the Symposium “The world in crisis – climate change, pandemic, and war” hosted by Medicus Mundi Switzerland in Basel, on 2 November. As international network, we usee the opportunity to extend the conversation and invite a broader audience to have a deeper look at how (exactly) to cope with the “world in crisis”.

• Medicus Mundi International (MMI)
• Documentation Webinar I: Introduciendo la crisis climática en la cooperación sanitaria: de la teoría a los primeros pasos en la práctica
• Documentation Webniar II: How to better care for those who care for us in times of health emergencies
• Documentation Webinar III: Why Post Growth policies are essential for planetary health
• Documentation Webinar IV: The project of a EU global health strategy: in whose interest will it be?

"Sharm el Sheikh – In a historic first, the issue of ¨loss and damage¨ finance for developing countries suffering from impacts of climate change was added to the formal negotiating agenda, as the 27th UN Climate Conference of Parties (COP27) opened here on Sunday – albeit after a delay of several hours as delegates tussled over the final wording of the agenda item. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a grim warning that the climate crisis is increasing illness and deaths at an increasing pace – with hundreds of millions of people already affected and trillions of dollars in direct and indirect economic losses. And the World Metereological Organization said the world is on track this year to record it´s eight warmest years ever, between 2015-2022."

• Health Policy Watch

"At the opening of the two-day Climate Implementation Summit at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, António Guterres called for a historic pact between developed and developing countries to combine capacities, and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems and avoiding a climate catastrophe. “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish. It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact,” the UN Secretary-General told over 100 world leaders reunited for the first official plenary of the UN Climate Change Conference. The proposed Pact would see all countries taking extra efforts to reduce emissions, wealthier nations and international financial institutions providing assistance to emerging economies, ending dependence on fossil fuels and the building of coals plants, providing sustainable energy for all, and uniting to combine strategy and capacities for the benefit of humankind."

• United Nations

"Notre environnement mondial évolue à un rythme alarmant, cela ne fait aucun doute. La communauté scientifique a lancé de sérieux avertissements. Pour elle, le changement climatique constitue une menace pour l’avenir de l’humanité. Pour MSF, l’humanité est notre priorité."

• Médecins Sans Frontières Schweiz

"Three strikes and you’re out is a pretty good rule. And the politicians and negotiators attending the Paris climate summit, “cop21”, in December 2015 were facing their third strike. Their first and second attempts to bind the world into a meaningful pact that would control greenhouse-gas emissions—in Kyoto in 1997 and in Copenhagen in 2009—had failed. If on their third time at bat they could do no better, the world was cooked. There was thus immense pressure on all at the conference to achieve a robust outcome. And a group of politicians and policymakers representing some of the world’s poorest countries had a very specific and controversial requirement for what it should contain. James Fletcher, of St Lucia, recalls that he and his fellow representatives of Caribbean states were “very clear in our minds that 1.5°C was a red-line item. It was one of the things that we said kind of silently: that we would be prepared to walk away from the negotiations if there was a sign we would not be getting a reference to 1.5°C in the Paris agreement.”

• The Economist

"This is really a historic meeting,” said Dr Ilona Kickbusch, co-chair of the European Health Forum at Gastein (EHFG). “Twenty years ago was the very first time there was any talk of a European global health strategy, and it took place right here at Gastein.” “It was in 2003 that global health first became a part of the EU’s health strategy,” Kickbusch recalled. “But then it disappeared, only to come back in 2010 as the first global health strategy, and now we are working on a second one.”

• Health Policy Watch

"Les Nations Unies (ONU) ont vu le jour en 1945, au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et devaient servir d’instrument pour une meilleure compréhension et coopération de la communauté des nations et pour la préservation de la paix internationale. Deux des jalons les plus récents de l’histoire de l’ONU sont l’adoption de l’accord de Paris sur le climat et l’adoption de l’Agenda 2030 qui, avec ses 17 objectifs de développement durable, fait office de boussole internationale dans ce domaine. En signant l’agenda, les États membres ont tous estimé que les objectifs de développement durable ne pouvaient être pensés et mis en œuvre au niveau international que de manière globale."

• Plateforme Agenda 2030

"Following the declaration of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda on 20 September 2022, the outbreak has now spread to seven districts (Kasanda, Kyegegwa, Bunyangabu and Kagadi districts beyond the original epicenter in Mubende district, and then to Kampala City and Wakiso). The government-led response has activated the Incident Management System in order to control the outbreak. In support of the Ministry of Health-led efforts, CEPI, Gavi and WHO have outlined a plan to accelerate research during the outbreak, to ensure access to investigational doses, and to facilitate scaling up and access to any subsequent licensed vaccine."

• Gavi

"Natalie Rhodes, PhD candidate at University of Leeds, and People’s Health Movement, along with Remco van de Pas, researcher at the Centre for Planetary Health Policy, and People’s Health Movement discuss in detail about the implications of the newly established World Bank fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response and the Bank’s other policies pertaining to public health."

• Video

"This Report defines systems for health as those ready to respond to both the known and unknown, present and future threats. Systems for health anticipate and address social, economic, environmental and commercial drivers of health to secure and enable healthier societies by aligning efforts to ensure health security and create healthy populations, systems for health not only provide, protect, and promote health, but also harness technology working with people and communities to deliver physical, mental and social health for all populations across the life course. This report provides actionable guidance for policy and practice and is a significant contribution to our future health…”

• WHO - Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research SCI

"The Seventh Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2022) organised by Health Systems Global (HSG), comes at a time when more than ever we need collaboration and collective learning to build strong health systems that will support a healthy, fair and safe world. The theme for HSR2022 is “Health Systems Performance in the Political Agenda: Sharing Lessons for Current and Future Global Challenges”. Focused on the high-level political agenda and on the ground realities, HSR2022 is set to provide a catalytic forum where we can come together to share, raise awareness, advocate for change, and develop partnerships for action."

• UHC2030

"BERLIN – Donors pledged some $2.6 billion more in funding to the global polio eradication initiative (GPEI) as of the closing day of the World Health Summit – which saw its shares of highs and lows in its finale, much like the rest of the three-day event. On the plus side, the donations, which included a pledge of $1.2 billion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced at the conference´s opening session Sunday, mean that the GPEI has come more than half way to meeting the funding target of US$4.8 billion set out in its 2022-2026 Strategy. And WHO´s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also signed a new memorandum of understanding with a global network of parliamentarians, UNITE. The network will collaborate with the global health agency to mobilize elected officials around the world in the campaign for a pandemic accord as well as other milestone global health aims."

• Health Policy Watch

"La Fondation Stanley Thomas Johnson lance un appel d’offres pour le programme de soutien « Improving the health of vulnerable people in and from fragile settings » (2023-2025) dans les domaines « Recherche médicale » et « Victimes de conflit et de violence » Plus de 100 millions de personnes dans le monde sont en fuite, la moitié d’entre elles dans leur propre pays (« internally displaced persons » IDP). Ces personnes proviennent de ce que l’on appelle des « contextes fragiles », ce qui veut dire que leur foyer est touché par un conflit, la violence ou une catastrophe naturelle (de plus en plus souvent due au changement climatique). Le programme de soutien souhaite contribuer à l’amélioration de la santé d’hommes et de femmes particulièrement vulnérables dans des contextes fragiles, notamment celle des personnes réfugiées et déplacées."

• Johnson Stiftung
• STJF funding programme 2023-2025: call document

"The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the shared frailty of societies in the face of common threats. If the world is to respond successfully to future pandemics and other emerging challenges, it will be essential to develop new public health instruments and a framework that redefines the rules of global governance. In many ways, a quantum lift in global health is needed similar to that achieved at the turn of the 21st century. That was a time when new multilateral initiatives with innovative governance and financial arrangements were established (eg, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in 2000, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002, and adoption of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003), and development assistance for health expanded at an unprecedented rate. However, the circumstances in 2022 are different and therefore call for original solutions. We outline the lessons that must be learned and the innovations that must be adopted to realise that purpose."

• The Lancet

"At a time of desperate uncertainty, the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) was established in April, 2020, just 3 months after WHO declared COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Consisting of ten UN agencies and global health organisations, The World Bank, Wellcome, and the Gates Foundation, ACT-A aimed to develop health products for COVID-19 and to ensure their equitable distribution, while helping health systems with delivery. (...) Based on 101 interviews with key informants, it concluded that the design was “top-down” and several aspects were misconceived. ACT-A afforded too much influence to donors and corporate partners, global targets were not met, and low and middle-income countries (LMICs)—the purported beneficiaries of the scheme—were excluded from conceptualisation. It documents particular dissatisfaction with ACT-A in Africa and Latin America."

• The Lancet

"Closing the digital divide: More and better funding for the digital transformation of health’ frames the thinking on how to guide investments and action for digital health transformation in low and middle income countries. The report lays out six key recommendations for national governments, international donors, and the private sector to increase and improve investments towards building digitally-enabled health systems that improve health outcomes for all. This report has been developed by Transform Health, with the support of its partners PATH and Joep Lange Institute, and with research contributions from regional networks and the Young Experts: Tech 4 Health."

• Transform Health

"The Governing Health Futures 2030 (GHFutures2030) Commission’s report outlines how digital technologies and data are transforming health and healthcare. The Commission observed that health systems in all regions of the world are becoming increasingly digital first. This means that rather than travelling to a health facility for a face-to-face consultation with a health worker, a patient can access a growing range of health services and health information through digital channels. From Rwanda to the United Kingdom, governments are aspiring to make digital first healthcare available to their whole populations. Digital tools and services such as virtual consultations with doctors, digital sensors and wearable technologies to monitor vital signs, and AI-assisted health information tools are becoming increasingly integrated. As they become the norm, it is likely that we will very soon stop talking about ‘digital’ health and ‘digital first’ health systems."

• Governing Health Futures 2030

"Around the world, today’s cities are vibrant, metropolitan hubs, filled with buzzing food scenes, job and education opportunities, night life and so on. It is therefore no surprise that young people flock to these urban centres for new opportunities, connections and excitement. The pull of large urban areas has resulted in more people settling and bringing up children in cities – meaning that now 60% of rapidly growing city populations are projected to be less than 18 years old by 2030. While cities are places of opportunity and growth, from education to healthcare, to employment, our city systems are currently failing young people with increased exclusion and poverty in disadvantaged urban areas, damaging their health and well-being, and leaving them at risk of being left behind."

• Tech Monitor

"In two weeks, the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will be meeting to decide how much total grant funding will be made available to countries in the next three years. But that funding looks unlikely to include additional pledges from big donors such as the United Kingdom. The Global Fund’s target was $18 billion for its replenishment conference in September. But the U.K. surprised many when it didn’t pledge a penny during the event, only saying that it will announce its contribution “in coming weeks,” while Italy said it will provide “incremental updates in the coming weeks as appropriate.”

• Devex

"The Thandizo approach supports young people living with HIV to adhere to treatment. Piloted for two years in two districts of Malawi, evaluation shows that the number of young people with HIV who stopped treatment dropped from 478 to 96. Out of these 96 there were 89 young people managed to get back in care. After these successes our ambition is countrywide scale up! (...) The Thandizo risk assessment tool was co-created and tested with implementers and young people themselves. The app identifies risks for non-adherence, provides referrals, tips and advice based on individual needs. It is used in both group sessions with a peer educator or individual consultations with a community health worker."

• Aidsfonds
• Thandizo approach

"A new UN report shows that women’s and children’s health has suffered globally, as the impacts of conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change converge with devastating effects on prospects for children, young people and women. Data presented in the report show a critical regression across virtually every major measure of childhood well-being, and many key indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since the last Every Woman Every Child Progress Report published in 2020, food insecurity, hunger, child marriage, risks from intimate partner violence, and adolescent depression and anxiety have all increased."

• World Health Organization (WHO)
• UN Report "Protect the Promise"

"It is time to end all forms of stigma and discrimination against people with mental health conditions, for whom there is double jeopardy: the impact of the primary condition and the severe consequences of stigma. Indeed, many people describe stigma as being worse than the condition itself. This Lancet Commission report is the result of a collaboration of more than 50 people worldwide. It brings together evidence and experience of the impact of stigma and discrimination and successful interventions for stigma reduction. We include material that brings alive the voices of people with lived experience of mental health conditions (PWLE). This is right in principle because we agree with the view of nothing about us without us. It is right in practice because the evidence summarised in this report shows that PWLE are the key change agents for stigma reduction. For these reasons, this report has been co-produced by people who have such lived experience and others who do not."

• The Lancet commission report
• Ending stigma and discrimination in mental health

"25 October 2022 – Today, Fondation Botnar is pleased to announce the launch of BEING, an international mental health initiative, to fund and support research and innovative approaches that improve the mental wellbeing of young people aged 10 to 24 in low- and middle-income countries. The initiative is hosted by Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), in partnership with Fondation Botnar and United for Global Mental Health, whose expertise and worldwide network will support advocacy, stakeholder engagement and other vital functions, and with institutional support from Global Affairs Canada. Globally, 75% of all mental health challenges begin before age 24, and almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide every year, putting it among the top five causes of death for their age group. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), up to 90% of the mental health needs of young people are going unmet due to a lack of resources."

• Fondation Botnar

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• Christoffel Blindenmission