Publications

This edition marks the 40th year of World Development Indicators, which was first published as an annex to the 1978 World Development Report. As the world has undergone many changes, World Development Indicators has grown and adapted alongside it. Country coverage and the range of indicators have expanded: The online database (http://data.worldbank.org) now includes more than 1,400 indicators for more than 220 economies, with some data series extending back more than 50 years. This year the World Development Indicators database has been improved to include more indicators that cover the Sustainable Development Goals and more data disaggregated by sex, age, wealth quintile, and urban or rural location. New data include access to clean cooking fuels and the number of industrial design applications registered globally. Data on GDP in current prices and inflation now account for breaks in time-series.

AIDS data contains the very latest data, from the end of 2015 and in mid-2016, on the world’s response to HIV: the latest information on the number of people living with HIV, the number of new HIV infections, the numbers of people—both adults and children—on HIV treatment, the coverage of prevention of mother-to child transmission of HIV services and expenditure on the AIDS response, both domestic and international. Trends show both the remarkable progress made in HIV treatment and the challenges that exist for HIV prevention. By region and by country, by sex and by age, data are presented through both graphs and charts and in extensive tables. This publication brings together in one place a part of the huge volume of data collected by UNAIDS over the years. The full data set of information for 1990 to 2015 can be found on an interactive website: aidsinfo.unaids.org.

#WhatWomenWant was launched as a campaign, powered by young women who want to be meaningfully involved in making change for women and girls. Using social media, it offers an innovative vehicle to amplify new voices, meet young women where they are, allow them to connect with others, lead with lived expertise, bring their solutions to the table, and build across and between issues, sectors, and movements. The campaign engages through an expanding network of primarily women-led organizations and individuals who are working to advance gender equality through a women’s rights and health focus.

This report describes and analyses key aspects of global health over the last decade. It considers trends and policies that are relevant to the role and potential influence of the World Health Organization (WHO). It deals with themes and areas of the world’s health, where progress would have been expected, was explicitly pledged, or was urgently needed. This report is not intended to be a work of scholarship, nor to address every aspect of global health. It is intended to look back and reflect on the trends, achievements and challenges of global health over the last decade – and to explore the needs of the future.

The World Health Statistics series is WHO’s annual compilation of health statistics for its 194 Member States. The series is produced by the WHO Department of Information, Evidence and Research, of the Health Systems and Innovation Cluster, in collaboration with all relevant WHO technical departments. World Health Statistics 2017 focuses on the health and health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated targets by bringing together data on a wide range of relevant SDG indicators. In some cases, as indicator definitions are being refined and baseline data are being collected, proxy indicators are presented. In addition, in the current absence of official goal-level indicators, summary measures of health such as (healthy) life expectancy are used to provide a general assessment of the situation.

This independent review, commissioned by the Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) Department at the Global Fund Secretariat, shares findings, conclusions, and recommendations for enhancing the meaningful engagement of communities in all phases of Global Fund grants, with an emphasis on grant making and grant implementation. The review synthesizes lessons learned and good practices for how communities engage meaningfully, and identifies key principles and strategic actions the Global Fund can take to ensure greater accountability between communities, Country Coordinating Mechanisms, other key stakeholders, and the Global Fund itself. It is important to note that HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria disproportionately affect certain groups as a result of social and economic inequities that persist worldwide. These groups are often criminalized and experience human rights abuses, seriously compromising their access to health services. These groups are also uniquely positioned to take action in response to disproportionate disease burden and their social and structural drivers.

People and families have been arriving in Narneen for what seems like forever. Everyone is different, with different habits, ways of talking and dressing. They have many stories about how they came to be here – some lost their homes during wars, others lost their land and crops to drought and some came to Narneen in search of a better life. This is the story of two of Narneen’s adolescents, Akilah and Carlos, who embarked on an adventure and discovered the importance of the role that all children and adolescents can play in their communities. AA-HA! Stands for Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents. It also means “Ah, now I understand!”. Every adolescent is unique, with diff erent needs and concerns. AA-HA! are suggestions to governments to help them to make sure YOU understand your health-related rights, and that you are helped to have the best possible chance to survive, thrive, and be in a position to help to transform the society you live in.

At national level, some of Youth LEAD’s focal points in the Asia-Pacific region have gone on to establish networks of their own, participate in decision-making, and have brought about positive change for their communities. This report attempts to capture the development phase of young key population-led organizations as selected among Youth LEAD’s focal points largely funded as the sub-grantees of the Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund (RCNF), observe the varying levels of success of this process, and identify common elements and challenges. Furthermore, this report aims to produce recommendations for donors and stakeholders wanting to support a comprehensive response to HIV and keen to engage with young key populations (YKP). Finally, recommendations from this report can help guide YKP in establishing networks for themselves and their peer, in the process promoting and exercising the right to equal participation for YKP.

The Global Prison Trends 2017 report by Penal Reform International, in collaboration with the Thailand Institute of Justice, provides a window to one of the least visible and least accessible government sectors, while highlighting some of the most intractable correctional issues for policy makers across the world. Prison overcrowding, inhumane treatment and the rising number of vulnerable groups of prisoners are problems that have long been listed as primary challenges when it comes to prison management. Yet the problems still persist in many parts of the world today, necessitating a new perspective and approach for criminal justice reforms. With 2017 marking the second year since the adoption of the SDGs, in addition to the global overview of current prison situations, the Special Focus section of this report focuses on the links between the SDGs and effective criminal justice systems and discusses the ways forward.

This report documents the thirty-eighth meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) that took place in Geneva, Switzerland from 14 to 18 November 2016.