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Guidance Documents and Tools for Health Support

Last updated: 17 Nov 2023

Overview

The global heath references utilized by IOM within its health response to crisis - as well as a number of additional guidance documents and tools - are provided in this entry. Familiarity with these documents and tools supports the designing and implementation of high quality emergency health programming, required to achieve the ultimate life-saving goal of humanitarian assistance.

 

Guidance Documents:

  1. Everybody's Business - Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes, WHO's Framework for Action: Health System Building Blocks (HSBB) framework is used to monitor health system strengthening through the identification of key inputs and immediate outcomes within a health system.
  2. WHO Health Resource Mapping System (HeRAMS): HeRAMS is a standardized tool used by the Health Cluster during a crisis to conduct baseline assessments on the impact of a crisis and to monitor the changes in resource availability throughout the crisis and beyond.
  3. IOM Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) Framework: HBMM framework aims to improve prevention, detection and response to the spread of infectious diseases and other health threats along the mobility continuum (at origin, transit, destination and return points) and its spaces of vulnerability with a particular focus on border areas.
  4. WHO Emergency Response Framework (ERF): The ERF defines WHO's roles and responsibilities to best serve and be accountable to populations affected by emergencies.
  5. Age-Friendly Primary Health Care Centres Toolkit: The toolkit builds upon the concepts and principles of the WHO's Active Ageing Policy Framework, published in 2002 on the occasion of the Second World Assembly on Ageing in Madrid. The Active Ageing Policy Framework calls on policy-makers, governments, and the non-governmental sector to optimize opportunities for health, participation, and security in order to enhance the quality of life of people as they age.
  6. Communicable Disease Control in Emergencies – A Field Manual: This manual is intended to help health professionals and public health coordinators working in emergency situations prevent, detect, and control the major communicable diseases encountered by affected populations. Emergencies include complex emergencies and natural disasters (e.g. floods and earthquakes). The term "complex emergencies" has been coined to describe "situations of war or civil strife affecting large civilian populations with food shortages and population displacement, resulting in excess mortality and morbidity".
  7. Outbreak Surveillance and Response in Humanitarian Emergencies – WHO Guidelines for EWARN Implementation: These guidelines are intended for all individuals responsible for disease surveillance activities at all levels. These individuals include health facility staff, surveillance officers, epidemiologists, data analysts and statisticians, government health officials, sanitarians, managers of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), public health officers, laboratory personnel and community health workers.
  8. Global Reference List of 100 Core Health Indicators: The Global Reference List is a standard set of 100 core indicators prioritized by the global community to provide concise information on the health situation and trends, including responses at national and global levels. The Global Reference List contains indicators of relevance to country, regional, and global reporting across the spectrum of global health priorities relating to the post-2015 health goals of the Sustainable Development Goals
  9. International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 - Third Edition: The purpose and scope of the IHR (2005) are to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of diseases in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.
  10. International Health Regulations (2005) – a guide for public health emergency contingency planning at designated points of entry (POE): This guide was designed to assist WHO Member States, both large and small, to bridge the gap between the legal requirements of the International Health Regulations (2005), or IHR (2005), and the pragmatic readiness and response capacity for public health emergencies at designated POEs. 
  11. UNICEF Cholera Toolkit
  12. Inter-agency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Humanitarian Settings
  13. Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for Reproductive Health in Crisis Situations  
  14. MISP Cheat sheet
  15. IWAG Newborn Health in Humanitarian Settings
  16. IOM Operational Briefer and Guidance: Use of Breast-Milk Substitutes in Humanitarian Crisis Settings: The brief and guidance documents, both aim to guide the work of IOM emergency coordinators, heads of programmes, multisectoral colleagues as well as mission-level decision makes when evaluating the need and/or appropriateness of distributing and/or using Breast-Milk Substitutes in humanitarian response to emergencies. 

 

Tools and Infosheets:

1.a. Migrant Health & Psychosocial Support in Crises

2.a Primary Healthcare Services for Migrants in Crisis Situations

3.a IOM Mobile Clinics, Transitional, and Temporary Health Facilities

4.a. Health Referrals, Facilitated Hospital Discharge and Assisted Returns for Crisis Affected Populations

5.a. IOM Medical Evacuations and Health Rehabilitation

6.a. Sexual and Reproductive Health for Crisis-Affected Populations

7.a. Health Care and Psychosocial Support for Former Combatants and Families

8.a. IOM Environmental Health Activities in Post-Crisis Settings

9.a. IOM Public Health Risk Assessment Tool

10.a.  Early Warning Alert and Response in Emergencies: an operational guide

Contacts

For additional support and guidance on Health in Emergencies contact the Migration Health Division (MHD): mhddpt@iom.int.

Key Documents

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