Publications

The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program is one of the principal sources of international data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, mortality, environmental health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and provision of health services. The DHS Spatial Analysis Reports supplement other DHS reports and respond to the increasing interest in a spatial perspective on demographic and health data. The principal objectives of all the DHS report series are to provide information for policy formulation at the international level and to examine individual country results in an international context.

This study presents findings from a further analysis of the follow-up to the 2017-18 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2017-18 PDHS). This report is a publication of The DHS Program, which is designed to collect, analyze, and disseminate data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, nutrition, and HIV/AIDS.

The Gender Alerts series highlights the disproportionate gender specific impacts of COVID-19 in Afghanistan, from the lack of services for survivors of violence to the challenges of building peace during a health crisis and a fast-paced rise in the burden of unpaid care work. The Gender Alerts offer a basis for an informed discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on women, girls and most marginalized groups. It provides recommendations for national and stakeholders through a unique combination of global and Afghan-led expertise and research. 

In Indonesia, women make up the majority of frontline healthcare professionals and community health workers. At home, women also play important roles as caregivers for children, the sick, and elderly members of their families. Plus, school closures mean that women have taken on an increased unpaid care burden while remaining one of the main contributors or sole breadwinners of their households. The brief focuses on UN Women Indonesia COVID-19 response to safeguarding and leveraging gains made on gender equality and women’s empowerment through policy advocacy and programming that incorporates a gender-transformative approach to recovery.

Women and girls in the Philippines are facing distinct challenges to their safety and well-being during COVID-19, such as access to healthcare services, gender-based violence and other human rights violations, and economic insecurity. While not all the impacts of COVID-19 are fully understood yet, it is evident that the gender and social inequalities that existed in the Philippines before the pandemic are now exacerbated. Our brief provides a snapshot of the issues facing women and girls in the Philippines during this crisis.

This programmatic brief explores how to expand HIV and STI prevention and contraceptive method options in contraceptive services and, thus, to reduce HIV and STI incidence among adolescent girls and women. It focuses on settings with extremely high HIV prevalence and incidence. This brief complements existing guidance on HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), amplifies calls for action and outlines more comprehensive approaches to integration of SRHR and HIV services. It also emphasizes the importance of SRHR for women living with HIV. It aligns with updated WHO recommendations for contraceptive eligibility for women at high risk of HIV and other HIV guidance for adolescent girls and young women.

This strategy is intended to support KP-focused HIV programs mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Developed for KP-focused HIV programs implemented or supported by FHI 360 in the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa, it may be used and adapted more broadly. Mitigation strategies refer to efforts to reduce exposure to and impact of COVID-19 on HIV program beneficiaries and staff and safely maintain HIV services within KP-focused HIV programs. Not included herein are strategies for responding to COVID-19 directly. This is a living document that will be updated frequently to reflect the rapidly changing context of COVID-19 and its impact on KP members, staff, and programs.  

This report was prepared as part of a World Health Organization (WHO) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to review the history of tuberculosis (TB) control in India, to assess the impact of the TB programme on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in India, and to outline directions for future progress. The challenge is now to sustain the existing DOTS-based programme while introducing all components of the new Stop TB strategy, including services to address TB/HIV, treatment for multidrug-resistant TB, strengthening laboratory services, and integrating TB services in all health facilities of both the public and private health-care sectors.

Last year, through an intense period of UN reform, UNDP worked hard to support the people of 170 countries and territories around the world to get on their feet and stay there. We continued to push the boundaries of how we think, deliver, invest and manage as #NextGenUNDP to deliver on our Strategic Plan, establishing UNDP’s financial stability and taking steps to make the organization nimbler and more responsive. Today, as we support the UN System and help countries to prepare, respond, and recover in the face of COVID-19, our investments are proving their worth.

Here is a look back at what we did in our region last year, as we sought to advance the Programme of Action stemming from the landmark 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD - the revolutionary framework that marked its 25th anniversary in 2019, whose vision of rights and choices for all complements and contributes to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals.