The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has played a leading role in sustainable mountain development within the United Nations system. It was appointed task manager for ...Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 in 1992 and acted as the lead agency for the International Year of Mountains in 2002. Since 2003, FAO has been mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to lead the annual observance of the International Mountain Day on 11 December. Both the Secretariats of the Mountain Partnership and the European Forestry Commission Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds are hosted by FAO in Rome, Italy, by the Water and Mountains Team in the Forestry Department. The aim of the Water and Mountains Team in FAO's Forestry Department is to assist in enhancing the resilience of mountain communities and environments. Its expertise lies in resilient watershed management, sustainable mountain development, and forest and water. The team advocates support for mountain environments by calling for targeted investments and mountain-related policies, and by collaborating with local communities to develop their capacity for sustainable development.
Accelerating the movement for mountain peoples and policies Makino, Yuka; Manuelli, Sara; Hook, Lindsey
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
2019-Sep-13, 2019-09-13, 20190913, Letnik:
365, Številka:
6458
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Policies can have impacts extending far downstream
In the early 1970s in the Himalayan state of Uttarkhand, India, women in what became known as the Chipko movement wrapped themselves around trees to ...prevent them from being felled. One factor contributing to the start of the movement was an increase in landslides, which the communities connected to increased logging. This movement, highlighting the importance of mountain ecosystems and their close interconnection with communities, eventually influenced government policy on the exploitation of forests (
1
). Today, in addition to challenges of land use and development, mountain ecosystems are also facing the threat of climate change: from glaciers in the high mountains, to threatening lives and livelihoods of communities along the elevation gradient, to ultimately affecting communities in the lowlands. Many national, regional, and international efforts have emerged to bring attention to, and develop scientific evidence on, the risks and opportunities facing people living in mountainous regions. But translation of these efforts into specific policies, strategies, and actions could be much improved. Mountain communities started the mountain movement, and the time has come for it to accelerate.
Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is prevalent around the world, but in particular the disease is growing rapidly in low‐ and middle‐income countries in parallel with changing diet and lifestyles. In many ...countries, ECC is often left untreated, a condition which leads to pain and adversely affects general health, growth and development, and quality of life of children, their families and their communities. Importantly, ECC is also a global public health burden, medically, socially and economically. In many countries, a substantial number of children require general anaesthesia for the treatment of caries in their primary teeth (usually extractions), and this has considerable cost and social implications. A WHO Global Consultation with oral health experts on “Public Health Intervention against Early Childhood Caries” was held on 26‐28 January 2016 in Bangkok (Thailand) to identify public health solutions and to highlight their applicability to low‐ and middle‐income countries. After a 3‐day consultation, participants agreed on specific recommendations for further action. National health authorities should develop strategies and implement interventions aimed at preventing and controlling ECC. These should align with existing international initiatives such as the Sixtieth World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 60.17 Oral health: action plan for promotion and integrated disease prevention, WHO Guideline on Sugars and WHO breastfeeding recommendation. ECC prevention and control interventions should be integrated into existing primary healthcare systems. WHO public health principles must be considered when tackling the effect of social determinants in ECC. Initiatives aimed at modifying behaviour should focus on families and communities. The involvement of communities in health promotion, and population‐directed and individual fluoride administration for the prevention and control of ECC is essential. Surveillance and research, including cost‐effectiveness studies, should be conducted to evaluate interventions aimed at preventing ECC in different population groups.
This study examines the practice of lopping of Quercus leucotrichophora A. Camus and Quercus floribunda Lindley ex Rehder in Garhwal Himalaya. The study objectives were to investigate the lopping ...process, the factors that influence it, and the changes it has undergone between 1993 and 2006, specifically, age and gender roles, method of fodder collection, type of branches and trees lopped, and weight of oak foliage bundles. Data were collected for 49 fodder collection trips in Beli village, Tehri Garhwal District, Garhwal Division. Four closely interlinked factors influenced forest use—gender roles, availability of oak foliage in the forest, number and type of livestock per household, and type of agricultural crops planted. The results indicate that lopping practice is not static. It has undergone fundamental changes between 1993 and 2006. Beli villagers continued to collect fodder basis, varied the fodder species collected, and rotated the location of trees lopped throughout the year in 2006, as they did in 1993. Foliage collection intensified until early 2000 when there was a marked decrease in the amount of foliage available in the forest. As a result, the villagers began to reduce their total reliance on the forest and agriculture for income and instead began to send their children to school in preparation for employment outside the village. This change in livelihood strategy is reflected in the lopping practice. Fodder collection trips decreased from 5 in 1993 to 3 times a day in 2006. The number of people collecting Q. floribunda decreased from 26 to 12, with fodder being collected mainly by women aged 21 to 26. This has resulted in females carrying significantly greater loads in 2006 (P = 0.0004). Examining the lopping practice provides insights into the impact of fodder collection on forest ecosystems and, in turn, the forest's impact on peoples' lives.
Mountains host about half of the world's biodiversity terrestrial hotspots (Spehn et al 2010) and 30% of all Key Biodiversity Areas (UNEP et al 2020). Mountain biodiversity provides many goods and ...services to humankind, including food, medicine, and climate and air quality regulation. Yet land use and climate change, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and demographic changes are putting mountain biodiversity under pressure. The sustainable management of mountain biodiversity has been recognized as a global priority, and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 Target 4 is dedicated to its conservation. The Mountain Partnership Secretariat has supported the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the development of the indicator for the mountain target 15.4.2, the Mountain Green Cover Index (FAO nd b), to monitor progress toward the target's achievement. Biodiversity in all ecosystems is in focus in many United Nations (UN) fora, as 2021–2030 is the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and governments are preparing to negotiate the post-2020 global biodiversity framework for adoption in 2021 at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). To raise awareness of the relevance of mountain biodiversity, it has been chosen as this year's International Mountain Day theme. The Mountain Partnership (MP) at FAO, the only UN alliance dedicated to mountain ecosystems and communities, leads global observance of this UN day.
Background
Evidence-informed oral health policies (OHP) can be instrumental in ending the neglect of oral health globally. When appropriately developed and implemented, OHP can improve the efficiency ...of healthcare systems and the quality of health outcomes. However, more than half of the countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) African region do not have an oral health policy or even the existence of a policy in need of additional and more national-specific OHP as part of non-communicable diseases and universal health coverage agendas. The objective of this protocol's study is to determine the barriers to and facilitators for the creation, dissemination, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of OHP in the WHO Africa region.
Methods
We will conduct a systematic search in Global Health, Embase, PubMed, PAIS, ABI/Inform, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Scopus, databases that index gray literature, and the WHO policy repositories. We will include qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods research studies and OHP documents published since January 1, 2002, which address stakeholders' perceptions and experiences regarding barriers to and facilitators for the creation, dissemination, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of OHP in countries part of the WHO African region. We will produce descriptive statistics (frequencies and proportions) for quantitative data and conduct descriptive content analysis for qualitative data.
Discussion
To effectively establish evidence-based OHP in the WHO African region, it is crucial to recognize existing challenges and opportunities for progress. The findings of this review will be relevant for Chief Dental Officers at ministries of health, administrators of dental schools, or academic institutions in the WHO African region and will inform a stakeholder dialogue meeting in Kenya in November of 2023.
Registration
Open Science Framework:
https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/9KMWR
The World Bank has reported that global smoking rates declined from 2000 to 2012, with the only exception found in males in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is considered to be in stage one of ...the tobacco epidemic continuum. To address this problem, school-based programs for smoking prevention are considered cost-effective and promising. Since tobacco prevention programs are influenced by social competence or customs of each country, tobacco prevention programs that have success in Western countries are not always effective in African countries. Therefore, the current study systematically reviewed relevant literature to examine the effects of these types of programs in African countries.
Online bibliographic databases and a hand search were used. We included the studies that examined the impact of school-based programs on preventing tobacco use in Africa from 2000 to 2016.
Six articles were selected. Four were conducted in South Africa and two were performed in Nigeria. Four programs were systematically incorporated into annual curriculums, targeting 8th to 9th graders, while the other two were temporary programs. All programs were based on the hypothesis that providing knowledge and/or social skills against smoking would be helpful. All studies utilized smoking or polydrug use rates to compare outcomes before/after intervention. There were no significant differences between intervention and control groups in three studies, with the other three demonstrating only partial effectiveness. Additionally, three studies also examined change of knowledge/attitudes towards smoking as an outcome. Two of these showed significant differences between groups.
All RCTs studies showed no significant change of smoking-rate by the intervention. The effectiveness of intervention was observed only in some sub-group. The cohort studies showed school-based interventions may be effective in improving knowledge and attitudes about smoking. However, they reported no significant change of smoking-rate by the intervention.
ObjectivesIntegration of oral health into primary care has been proposed as a primary healthcare approach for efficient and sustainable delivery of oral health services, and the effective management ...of oral diseases. This paper aimed to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness of strategies to integrate oral health into primary care.DesignSystematic review.Data sourcesMEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest, Cochrane and Google Scholar were searched without date limits until the third week of June 2022. Reference lists of eligible studies were also searched. Experts in the field and existing professional networks were consulted.Eligibility criteriaOnly studies that evaluated integration strategies were included in the review. Eligibility was restricted to English language studies published in academic peer-reviewed journals.Data extraction and synthesisTwo reviewers independently extracted data and performed the risk of bias assessments. A narrative synthesis approach was used to report review findings. Heterogeneity among included studies precluded a meta-analysis.ResultsThe search identified 8731 unique articles, of which 49 were included in the review. Majority of the studies explored provision of oral healthcare by primary care professionals in primary care settings, where integration was primarily via training/education and/or policy changes. Most studies reported results favouring the integration strategy, such as improvements in referral pathways, documentation processes, operating efficiencies, number of available health staff, number of visits to non-dental primary care professionals for oral health issues, proportion of children receiving fluoride varnish applications/other preventive treatment, proportion of visits to an oral health professional and dental caries estimates.ConclusionThe findings from this review demonstrate that the majority of identified strategies were associated with improved outcomes and can be used to inform decision-making on strategy selection. However, more research and evaluation are required to identify best practice models of service integration.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42020203111.
Background
The focus on cancer in adolescents and young adults (AYA) has increased in recent years. We participated in an event called AYA week 2021 as part of a research project of the Ministry of ...Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) and conducted a fact-finding survey to collect information for raising public awareness of AYA-generation cancers and to improve support for AYA-generation cancer patients.
Methods
A 25-item questionnaire survey was conducted through requests sent to the deans of medical schools and presidents of related universities across Japan and by advertising on social networking sites and friendship networks. Furthermore, the effects of a lecture given by three cancer survivors on their cancer experience were examined.
Results
A total of 1288 healthcare students participated. The most common age group was between 20 and 24 years, with the majority being medical students (83%). The AYA cancer-educated population had more knowledge about AYA-generation cancers than the overall group. At present, very few people are familiar with AYA-generation cancers (30.5%), which highlights the importance of school education. There were 163 participants who attended the lecture given by the cancer survivors, of whom 108 completed the questionnaire. The results showed high participant satisfaction related to the lecture given by cancer survivors, suggesting that such lectures could help educate and raise awareness about AYA-generation cancers.
Conclusions
The knowledge survey and lecture given by cancer survivors had educational effects. Many healthcare students responded positively, suggesting the efficacy of these types of initiatives.
The study also reiterates the mix of factors such as malnutrition and food insecurity, infectious diseases, absence of health-care access, poverty and deficits in water, sanitation, and hygiene, and ...many other aspects that are associated with the risk of developing noma, even though exact contributions and causal roles in the rapid disease process need further research. Priorities in global health reflect complexities of governance, the power distributions and political agendas of stakeholders, as well as donor preferences and financial assistance available.3 Advocacy and action for noma were often driven by the wider oral health community, including maxillofacial and plastic surgeons, because of the origin of noma in and around the mouth. Influential global health organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières were testifying during the consultations at the time.4 It is only now, 10 years later, that these organisations, encouraged by a historic Resolution on oral health adopted by the World Health Assembly in May, 2021, and a draft WHO Global Strategy on Oral Health, are increasing their advocacy pushing for integration in the WHO NTD Road Map 2021–30.5–7 The opportunities for advocacy, funding, research, and global visibility resulting from the classification of noma as an NTD would substantially boost political discourses and action.8,9 Historical experience from many countries where noma cases used to be observed shows that noma control or even elimination is possible, alongside with eliminating extreme poverty and improving living conditions.
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