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July 11, 2022

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2022

The SOFI 2022 was launched last Wednesday, 06 Jul 2022. It is an annual report prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO to inform on progress towards ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition; and to provide an in-depth analysis of key challenges for achieving this goal in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This year's theme is "Repurposing food and agricultural policies to make healthy diets more affordable". The report is intended

July 06, 2022

State of the World's Children 2023 Report: UNICEF convening event in Florence

With the aim of preparing the next report “The State of the World's Children”, which should be published in early 2023, a meeting was held in Florence on June 8 - 11. Professor Aluísio Barros, representing the International Center for Equity in Health, joined representatives from UNICEF partner institutions such as Gavi, the Gates Foundation and AMREF Health Africa to discuss how to investigate challenges in childhood immunization and develop actionable responses and incre

July 05, 2022

IECH researchers participate in an event in Nairobi - Kenya: Analysis workshop for sub-Saharan Africa

In June 13 -17 researchers from the International Center for Equity in Health (ICEH) Aluisio Barros and Fernando Wehrmeister participated in the event “Producing reliable national and subnational health statistics with a focus on maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition” whose objective was to strengthen skills of the country teams in the analysis of health facility and national and subnational data. The event was promoted by the Countdown to 2030, with the support

June 24, 2022

Gender-Related Inequality in Childhood Immunization Coverage: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of DTP3 Coverage and Zero-Dose DTP Prevalence in 52 Countries Using the SWPER Global Index

Harmful gender norms, unbalanced distribution of power, and restricted decision-making for women are persistent in many settings and could decrease the probability of a child to be vaccinated.  To investigate the role of women’s social independence on child immunization we analysed data data from 52 low- and middle-income countries. We looked at children who received three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis containing vaccine (DPT3). We found that, in general, children of mothers w

June 06, 2022

The role of female permanent contraception in meeting the demand for family planning in low- and middle-income countries

Coverage of demand for family planning satisfied by modern methods is increasing in most countries. However, despite the development and improvement of reversible methods, the proportion of contraceptive users relying on female permanent contraception is still large in several countries. Our recently published study aimed to identify countries with high reliance on it and to describe socio-economic and demographic inequalities in its use. The findings of this study highlight the hig

May 16, 2022

Ethnic disparities in immunisation: analyses of zero-dose prevalence in 64 countries

The WHO Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) envisions ‘a world where everyone, everywhere, at every age, fully benefits from vaccines to improve health and well-being’ and has as one of its targets the reduction of the number of zero-dose children globally by 50% by 2030. Although analyses of inequalities in immunization coverage are plentiful in the literature, studies on ethnicity remain poorly investigated in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Therefore, we examined ethnic

May 10, 2022

Health and development from preconception to 20 years of age to build human capital

For human capital formation and a prosperous future, development and optimal health are crucial, from preconception to adulthood. The Nurturing Care Framework conceptualizes the influences that affect human capital occur during developmental periods, from preconception, through pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence (adapted to age 20). Other important considerations are stillbirths, mortality in children under 5 years of age, and deaths in children aged 5 to 19. It is estimated that in 2019, 8.6

May 10, 2022

Effects of early-life poverty on health and human capital in children and adolescents: analyses of national surveys and birth cohort studies in LMICs

Over the past two decades, the nutrition and survival of children (and to a lesser extent, adolescents) have improved substantially. Large disparities between and within countries persist, despite improvements associated with effective delivery of biomedical, behavioral, and environmental interventions. We analyzed how strongly the health, nutrition and cognitive development of children and adolescents are related to early-life poverty, using data from 95 national surveys low- and middle-income