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Changed health behaviours can contribute significantly to improved health. Consequently, significant investments have been channelled towards health behaviour change initiatives in Africa. Health behaviour change initiatives that address social, economic and environmental levers for behaviour change can create more sustained impact. Through a scoping study of the literature, we explored the literature on behaviour change initiatives in Africa, to assess their typologies. We explored whether the availability of initiatives reflected country demographic characteristics, namely life expectancy, gross domestic product (GDP), and population sizes. Finally, we assessed topical themes of interventions relative to frequent causes of mortality. We used the Behaviour Change Wheel intervention categories to categorise each paper into a typology of initiatives. Using Pearson's correlation coefficient, we explored whether there was a correlation between the number of initiatives implemented in a country in the specified period, and socio-demographic indicators, namely, GDP per capita, total GDP, population size, and life expectancy. Almost 64% of African countries were represented in the identified initiatives. One in five initiatives was implemented in South Africa, while there was a dearth of literature from Central Africa and western parts of North Africa. There was a positive correlation between the number of initiatives and GDP per capita. Most initiatives focused on addressing sexually transmitted infections and were short-term trials and/or pilots. Most initiatives were downstream focused e.g. with education and training components, while upstream intervention types such as the use of incentives were under-explored. We call for more emphasis on initiatives that address contextual facilitators and barriers, integrate considerations for sustainable development, and consider intra-regional deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-governmental organizations play a vital part in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations. These Goals also include targets related to noncommunicable diseases. However, non-governmental organizations have played a limited role in this area despite such diseases causing the bulk of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Through their activities, non-governmental organizations should aim to strengthen health systems, yet they often only support these for a single disease. Mali, like many other low- and middle-income countries, is facing an increasing burden of diabetes and a health system not adapted to address this challenge. Santé Diabète, a non-governmental organization based in Mali since 2003, has been working specifically on diabetes, and has developed a wide range of activities to improve the national health system. This paper describes changes in the diabetes environment in Mali between 2004 and 2018 based on two health system assessments carried out using a Rapid Assessment Protocol. Over this period, the health system was strengthened with regard to financing and access to medical products. Leadership and governance, service delivery and health workforce were all improved but still partially rely on sustained support from Santé Diabète. The key lesson from this study is that to be effective in changing the management of noncommunicable diseases in a low- and middle-income country, non-governmental organizations need to play a variety of roles, many of which may change over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'The midwife's role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Protect and Invest Together' is a report providing the reader the opportunity for understanding and appreciating the history of midwifery in Sweden and the interlinked nature of the United Nation's SDGs supporting health and wellbeing of women and children. To realise the opportunity to have a country with well-educated midwives of high academic standard, and, at the same time, promoting gender equality and equity we need to protect and invest together in midwives. This paper provides the foundation for a revitalised discussion on midwives' role for women and child health in the 21st century. The full Swedish Midwifery report was published in October 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assistive technologies are critical to supporting the participation and engagement of persons with disabilities and others who experience functional difficulties in daily life. Assistive products have been demonstrated to be related to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); however, no previous research has explored the relationship between assistive technology (AT) and the SDGs from the perspective of stakeholder organisations working in the field of AT provision. In this study, we evaluated the relevance of AT and the SDGs to achieving the organisational missions of key stakeholders in AT ecosystem in Malawi. Key stakeholders (n = 36) in the AT field in Malawi were asked to rate the relevance of AT to achieving their organisational missions, and the relevance of AT to each of the 17 SDGs on a 5-point Likert scale. Stakeholders who participated were engaged in consultative meetings with the government and an action research team as part of a larger policy development project, and represented ministries and government agencies, organisations of persons with disabilities, and local and international non-governmental organisations. AT was rated as being relevant to all of the SDGs, albeit to varying degrees, and not surprisingly to achieving AT stakeholders' organisational missions. The cross-cutting nature of the relevance of AT underscores the importance of cross-ministerial cooperation and shared leadership in provision AT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Health is a young discipline with equity of health and services as its core value. The discipline has a tradition of close links between practice and research in line with the 'Health for All' declaration launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1978. The multitude of existential health crises facing mankind require a research agenda in line with Global Health Research core values and methods, such as transdisciplinary collaboration, long time series of population-based observations and multifaceted interventions. Knowledge gaps cover climate effects on health and mechanisms for global spread and control of antibiotic resistance across species. Such health threats are preferably studied at Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites, a scientific infrastructure for Global Health Research in Africa and Asia, that gains to expand and monitor climate parameters and include sites in the northern hemisphere. Global Health Scientists together with science societies can ensure long-term funding of a global network of population-based health-climate sites. Global Health Scientists and scientific journals should jointly provide data and evidence on global health to governance bodies on regional, national and global levels, in particular to WHO and United Nations in charge of the programme with Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Higher education institutions have a role in raising awareness and building skills among future professionals for implementing the SDGs. This review describes how the SDGs have been integrated into higher education globally. Determine how have the SDGs been integrated into higher education globally. Describe the differences in the integration of the SDGs in higher education across high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Following a scoping review methodology, we searched Medline, Web of Science, Global Health, and Educational Resources Information Center, as well as websites of key institutions including universities, identifying peer-reviewed articles and grey literature published between September 2015 and December 2021. We identified 20 articles and 38 grey literature sources. Since 2018, the number of publications about the topic has been increasing. The SDGs were most frequently included in bachelor-level education and disciplines such as engineering and technology; humanities and social sciences; business, administration, and economics. Methods of integrating the SDGs into higher education included workshops, courses, lectures, and other means. Workshops and courses were the most frequent. The methods of integration varied in high-income countries compared to low- and middle-income countries. High-income countries seemed to follow a more academic approach to the SDGs while low- and middle-income countries integrate the SDGs with the aim to solve real-world problems. This study provides examples of progress in integrating the SDGs into higher education. Such progress has been skewed to high-income countries, bachelor-level initiatives, and certain disciplines. To advance the integration of the SDGs, lessons learned from universities globally should be shared broadly, equitable partnerships formed, and students engaged, while simultaneously increasing funding for these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocacy is one of the core functions of public health and is a key tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Public health associations play a key role in advocating for the development and implementation of strategies to prevent diseases and promote health and well-being. This study aims to map out the focus of public health advocacy carried out by selected national public health associations over 4 years, between 2018 and 2021, in order to identify gaps and strengths and support associations and professionals in their advocacy efforts. Twelve national public health associations participated in the study. Official policy documents produced between 2018 and 2021 were collected and analysed. The title and summary of the policy documents were examined line by line and coded into the main subject categories and themes. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Policies were assessed from global and regional perspectives. A total of 220 policy documents were analysed. Overall, the largest number of policy documents came from high-income countries and dealt with environmental health and communicable diseases, including COVID-19, with, however, important differences among regions. In the African region, public health advocacy focused mainly on strengthening health systems; Europe and South America were mostly concerned with communicable diseases and pandemic management; and North America and the Western Pacific regions focused primarily on climate change. Limited attention was paid to international health and health as a human right in all regions. Our study showed that, especially in high-income countries, public health associations actively engage in advocacy; however, more effort needs to be devoted to implementing a more international and intersectoral approach at the global level, anchored in health as a human right and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, 85% of all children who die are under the age of five. A recent scoping review examining the literature from 2000 to 2021 shows the importance of sustainable integrated preventive child health care for improving child health, enhancing the uptake of preventive child health services, and decreasing health-care costs. In 2022, we organised a stakeholder workshop in Uganda to discuss and contextualise the findings of the scoping review. The workshop took place under the umbrella of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, a virtual collaborative centre co-hosted by Makerere University in Uganda and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The workshop convened multidisciplinary and multisectoral stakeholders, including parents, nurses, paediatricians, nutritionists, village health team members, religious leaders, social workers, teachers, lawyers, health and climate researchers, and representatives from the police, the agricultural sector, the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and other international and national non-governmental organisations, among others. We reflect on the importance of multidisciplinary and multisectoral stakeholder engagement, not only in building bridges between research and practice but also in linking sectors and connecting people for sustainable preventive integrated child health care. Though an important step, this workshop was only a first step; over time, relationships must be nurtured, multisectoral systems built and research and policy closely connected. We hope this workshop will not remain a one-off event but becomes an institutionalised effort that sparks action for sustainable preventive integrated child health care in Kampala and beyond, and sustainable health for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]