Background
A Lancet Series, Women’s and Children’s Health in Conflict Settings, aims to improve understanding of and address the special requirements of providing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition services in conflict settings. The Series draws upon scholarship from the BRANCH Consortium, providing insights into the nature and dynamics of women’s and children’s health and nutrition in diverse conflict contexts globally. The Series papers articulate a way forward to fill immediate evidence and guidance gaps as well as longer term action to ensure the most effective humanitarian health response for conflict-affected women and children. The Series is free to read with registration to TheLancet.com (also free) here: www.thelancet.com/series/conflict-health
A diverse panel of experts and frontline workers will share ideas on how to advance health sector interventions for women and children in conflict settings. The Series includes:
Paper 1 - The political and security dimensions of the humanitarian health response to violent conflict (Paul H Wise et al, for the BRANCH Consortium) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00130-6/fulltext
Paper 2 - The effects of armed conflict on the health of women and children (Eran Bendavid et al, for the BRANCH Consortium) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00131-8/fulltext
Paper 3 - Delivering health interventions to women, children, and adolescents in conflict settings: what have we learned from ten country case studies? (Neha S Singh et al, and the BRANCH Consortium Steering Committee) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00132-X/fulltext
Paper 4 - Delivering health and nutrition interventions for women and children in different conflict contexts: a framework for decision making on what, when, and how (Michelle F Gaffey et al, and the BRANCH Consortium Steering Committee) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00133-1/fulltext
Commentary - Doing better for women and children in armed conflict settings (Zulfiqar A Bhutta et al) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00127-6/fulltext
Commentary - A commitment to support the world’s most vulnerable women, children, and adolescents (Helen Clark) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00137-9/fulltext
Agenda
Moderator: Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief, The Lancet
10h00 – 10h05: Welcome and introduction to event, Richard Horton, The Lancet
10h06 – 10h11: Keynote remarks, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
10h12 – 10h42: Key messages from the Lancet Series on women's and children's health (WCH) in conflict settings
- Zulfiqar A Bhutta, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health & The Aga Khan University & BRANCH Consortium
- Paul Wise, Stanford University & BRANCH Consortium
- Eran Bendavid, Stanford University & BRANCH Consortium
- Neha Singh, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre & BRANCH Consortium
- Michelle Gaffey, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health & BRANCH Consortium
- Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health & BRANCH Consortium
10h42 – 10h48: Polling and Pre-recorded Videos
10h48 – 11h23: Panel discussion (coordinated by Richard Horton) - A vision for women's, children's and adolescents' health (WCAH) for the next decade: taking forward the recommendations from the Lancet Series on WCH in conflict settings
- Elizabeth Mason, Independent Accountability Panel
- Esperanza Martinez, International Committee of the Red Cross
- Wais Qarani, Afghanistan Nurses and Midwives Council
- Paul Richard Fife, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)
Participants can interact by posting comments or questions to the lead authors or panel members through the chat box that will be relayed to Richard, as the moderator.
11h23 – 11h28: Polling and Pre-recorded Videos
11h29 – 11h32: Political commitment and investment for WCAH in conflict settings, Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, PMNCH Board Chair
11h32 - 11h35: Pre-recorded Videos
11h35 - 11h45: Next steps & taking the message forward, Zulfiqar A Bhutta, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health & The Aga Khan University & BRANCH Consortium
Closing remarks & thanks, Karl Blanchet, Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies & BRANCH Consortium
Closing Video
Invited Short Comments (1 minute video-recorded sound bites) to be played at the event:
- Ana Langer, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health & BRANCH Consortium
- Ties Boerma, Countdown to 2030 & BRANCH Consortium
- Ron Waldman, Doctors of the World & BRANCH Consortium
- Hala Ghattas, American University of Beirut & BRANCH Consortium
- Espoir Bewenge Malembaka, Université Catholique de Bukavu & BRANCH Consortium
- Abdi Dalmar, Somali Research and Development Institute (SORDI) & BRANCH Consortium
- Isabel Garces, Universidad de Antioquia & BRANCH Consortium
- Robert Black, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & BRANCH Consortium
Speaker Bios
Richard Horton, The Lancet
Richard Horton is Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet. He qualified in physiology and medicine with honours from the University of Birmingham in 1986. He joined The Lancet in 1990, moving to New York as North American Editor in 1993. In 2016, he chaired the Expert Group for the High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by Presidents Hollande of France and Zuma of South Africa. From 2011 to 2015, he was co-chair of the UN's independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health. In 2011, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine and, in 2015, he received the Friendship Award from the Government of China. In 2019 he was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence. He now works to develop the idea of planetary health – the health of human civilizations and the ecosystems on which they depend. In 2020, he published The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What’s Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again. A revised, updated, and expanded second edition was published in 2021.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected as WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017. He is the first person from the WHO African Region to serve as WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer. Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012–2016. In this role he led efforts to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health from 2005–2012, where he led a comprehensive reform of the country’s health system. All roads lead to universal health coverage for Dr Tedros, and he has demonstrated what it takes to expand access to health care with limited resources.
Zulfiqar A Bhutta, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health & The Aga Khan University & BRANCH Consortium
Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Inaugural Robert Harding Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Co-Director and Director of Research at the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, and Founding Director of both the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, and Institute of Global Health and Development at Aga Khan University. Dr. Bhutta is a Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan, co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region, and the Coalition of Centres in Global Child Health Chairman. He is a leading voice for health professionals supporting integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally.
Dr. Bhutta leads large research groups in Toronto, Karachi and Nairobi with special interests in scaling up evidence-based, community setting interventions and implementation of RMNCAH&N interventions in humanitarian contexts.
Dr. Bhutta obtained his MBBS from the University of Peshawar and his PhD from the Karolinska Institute. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. In 2020 he was awarded the honour of Fellow of the Royal Society.
Paul H. Wise, Stanford University & BRANCH Consortium
Dr. Wise is dedicated to bridging the fields of child health equity, public policy, and international security studies. He is the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at Stanford University. He is also co-Director, Stanford Center for Prematurity Research and a Senior Fellow in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Dr. Wise is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been working as Special Expert to the U.S. Federal Court overseeing the treatment of migrant children in U.S. border detention facilities.
Dr. Wise’s most recent work has addressed social disparities in birth outcomes and women’s and children’s health in violent and politically complex environments around the world.
Eran Bendavid, Stanford University & BRANCH Consortium
Eran Bendavid, MD MS, is an infectious diseases physician and an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford. He is a senior fellow at the Center for Innovation in Global Health and the Woods Institute for the Environment. His scholarship aims to clarify how environments — social, political, economic, and natural — influence the health of individuals and communities living in lower-income settings. He led studies that examine the risks to women and children living near areas of armed conflict (Lancet 2018 and Lancet Global Health 2019), with a focus on regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia whose populations have suffered from chronic conflict. Dr. Bendavid has been part of BRANCH since 2018. He received a B.A. in chemistry and philosophy from Dartmouth College, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. His residency in internal medicine and fellowship in infectious diseases were completed at Stanford.
Neha Singh, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre & BRANCH Consortium
Dr. Neha Singh is co-Director of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre and Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. She has a background in public health and expertise in health policy and systems research using mixed methods to improve the prioritisation, design and delivery of women’s, children’s and adolescent health in conflict-affected settings. She collaborates with a range of NGOs, governments and UN and other multilateral agencies, including in her role as technical advisor to the World Health Organization on women’s, children’s and adolescent health in humanitarian settings.
Michelle Gaffey, SickKids Centre for Global Child Health & BRANCH Consortium
Michelle is a co-investigator and member of the Steering Committee of the BRANCH Consortium (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women & Children) and Associate Editor at the BMC journal Conflict and Health. As a Senior Research Manager at the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health in Toronto, Michelle manages a research portfolio focused on maternal, child and adolescent health and nutrition in low- and middle-income countries, including in conflict settings. She has graduate degrees in the political economy of international development and in epidemiology and is completing a PhD at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
Paul Spiegel, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health & BRANCH Consortium
Dr. Paul Spiegel, a Canadian physician by training, is internationally recognized for his research on preventing and responding to humanitarian emergencies, with a focus on refugee crises. Paul is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health and Professor of the Practice in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). Before JHSPH, Dr. Spiegel was Deputy Director and Chief of Public Health at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
He previously worked as a Medical Epidemiologist in the International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a Medical Coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde in refugee emergencies, as well as a consultant for numerous international organizations. Dr. Spiegel was the first Chair of the Funding Committee for Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (2013-2018).
Dr. Spiegel has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on humanitarian health and migration. He has served as a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission for Migration and Health and the Lancet Commission on Syria. He is currently co-chair of Lancet Migration.
Elizabeth Mason, Independent Accountability Panel
Elizabeth Mason is a specialist in Public Health - Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and has more than 40 years’ experience in Clinical care; Policy and Strategy development; Planning, management, implementation and monitoring of programmes at all levels of the health service, including 24 years living and working in Zimbabwe and the African region. She was Director of the WHO’s department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, Geneva, for 10 years. She is co-chair of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Accountability Panel for Every Woman, Every Child, Every Adolescent.
Esperanza Martinez, ICRC
Dr. Esperanza Martinez is the Head of Health for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She is responsible for overseeing the delivery of humanitarian health services to populations affected by war and violence in more than 80 countries around the world.
She is a medical doctor and general surgeon, trained in Colombia, and specialized in International Public Health and Health Management in Australia. Her experience includes over ten years of field work in conflict-affected countries as well as work with UN agencies, government bodies and the private sector.
Wais Qarani, Afghanistan Nurses and Midwives Council
Mr Wais Mohammad Qarani has completed Bachelors of Science in Nursing in 2009 and Masters of Science in Nursing in 2015 from the Aga Khan University School of Nursing in Karachi, Pakistan.
Mr. Qarani has extensive nursing management experience in education and healthcare provision. Since April 2011 he is serving the French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC) in different capacities; and currently he is the “Administrator/Director” for the Division of Nursing Services.
Before this, Mr. Qarani was assigned through Jhpiego as “Technical Advisor” to the Afghanistan Midwifery and Nursing Education Accreditation Board; and he has also served AKU programs in Afghanistan as “Nurse Educator”.
Besides leading and facilitating various small-scale quality improvement projects, Mr. Qarani has numerous publications.
As part of his voluntarily services, he has served AKU Alumni Association Afghanistan Chapter as “President” during 2017-2019. Currently, he is the President of the Afghanistan Nurses and Midwives Council.
Paul Richard Fife, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad)
Dr. Paul Richard Fife is Director for Global Health, Education and Human Rights in Norad - the Norwegian Directorate for Development Cooperation. In this function, he contributes to Norway’s international engagement and oversees the implementation of aid investments in global health, education, human rights and gender equality. Dr. Fife has represented the Government of Norway on various Boards, including of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the Vaccine Alliance GAVI and the Global Financing Facility (GFF). From 1995-2003, he worked on vaccines and health systems strengthening with UNICEF in Eritrea, Cambodia and at UNICEF HQ in New York. A Norwegian national, he trained as a medical doctor in Norway and holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and Management.
Helen Clark, PMNCH
Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand for three successive terms from 1999 to 2008. She was the first woman to become Prime Minister following a General Election in New Zealand and the second woman to serve as Prime Minister. Throughout her tenure as Prime Minister and as a Member of Parliament over 27 years, Helen Clark engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international affairs, economic, social, environmental and cultural spheres. In April 2009, Helen Clark became Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. She was the first woman to lead the organization and served two terms there. At the same time, she was Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of all UN funds, programmes, agencies and departments working on development issues. As Administrator, she led UNDP to be ranked the most transparent global development organization. Prior to entering the New Zealand Parliament, Helen Clark taught in the Political Studies Department of the University of Auckland, from which she earlier graduated with her BA and MA (Hons) degrees.
Karl Blanchet, Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies & BRANCH Consortium
Professor Karl Blanchet is the Director of the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, and Professor in Humanitarian Public health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva. Karl was also the coDirector of the Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research has focused on health system resilience and the development of priority package of health services in conflict-affected countries such as Afghanistan or during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Video Commentaries
Ana Langer, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health & BRANCH Consortium
Originally from Argentina, after decades of work with international NGOs in Latin America and globally, Dr. Ana Langer joined the Harvard School of Public Health in July 2010 as a Professor of the Practice of Public Health (Department of Global Health and Population) and Director of the Women and Health Initiative and Maternal Health Task Force. Dr. Langer, a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology and a reproductive health expert, has conducted extensive research in low and middle-income countries and the US and published extensively on maternal health, unsafe abortion, contraception, quality of reproductive health care, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, and maternal health and gender in humanitarian settings.
In close collaboration with experts from around the world, Dr. Langer led the Lancet-HSPH Commission on Women and Health, which resulted in the seminal publication Women and Health: the key to sustainable development in 2015.
Along her career, Dr. Langer has worked effectively on the translation of scientific evidence into policy and programs in her field in all three major developing regions and trained and mentored a large number of public health professionals and emerging leaders from around the world.
Ties Boerma, Countdown to 2030 & BRANCH Consortium
Ties Boerma is professor and Canada Research Chair for Population and Global Health at the Institute for Global Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Canada, and Director of the Countdown to 2030 for Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health. He has over 30 years of experience working in global public health and research programmes, including 10 years at national and districts levels in Africa. He has directed the World Health Organization's work on health information and evidence for 14 years, and has worked for bilateral donors, national governments and research institutions, and published extensively on AIDS, maternal and child health, health information systems and statistics in epidemiological, demographic, and public health journals. A national of the Netherlands, he received his medical degree from the University of Groningen, and a PhD in medical demography from the University of Amsterdam
Ron Waldman, Doctors of the World & BRANCH Consortium
Ron Waldman, MD, began his career as a volunteer in the WHO Global Smallpox Eradication Program in Bangladesh. He joined the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1979 and was assigned to help establish that country’s Refugee Health Unit. This experience led to studies on the health of large refugee populations and to a career-long interest in the study and promotion of humanitarian public health interventions in emergency-affected populations. A series of publications analyzing trends and outcomes in health and nutrition helped inject public health science into the field of humanitarian relief and many of the findings of he andhis colleagues have become standard elements of practice. He has worked in many conflict settings, including the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He coordinated the US Government’s post-earthquake health sector relief effort in Haiti in 2010 and was a Senior Advisor to the UN during the Pakistan floods of that year. Outside of emergencies, he has served as Coordinator of the Cholera Task Force at WHO and has been focusing on pandemic preparedness since 2007. He is currently Professor of Global Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University and he is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doctors of the World – USA.
Hala Ghattas, American University of Beirut & BRANCH Consortium
Hala Ghattas is Associate Research Professor & Director of the Center for Research on Population and Health at the American University of Beirut’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research has focused on the social and structural determinants of maternal and child health and nutrition in low-resource settings and marginalized populations. This includes mixed-methods studies of food insecurity experience, barriers to appropriate infant feeding, and barriers to antenatal care access, as well as survey research on food security, nutrition and health status of refugees. Her work responds to the challenges identified by designing, implementing and evaluating public health interventions to address these, particularly in protracted humanitarian settings. Ghattas holds a Master’s in Public Health Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD from St George’s, University of London.
Espoir Bewenge Malembaka, Université Catholique de Bukavu & BRANCH Consortium
Espoire is from South Kivu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Akin to all the children born in the late 1980s in the Kivu, his childhood was marked by the socio-political instability and the humanitarian crisis caused by several war episodes that ravaged the eastern over the last three decades. He remembers spending a few weeks of his childhood in a settlement for displaced persons in rural South Kivu when his family fled their home in Bukavu because of the 1996 DRC war.
Espoire was lucky to graduate in Medicine from the Université Catholique de Bukavu and worked as a physician in the department of paediatrics at the Bukavu Provincial Referral General Hospital for about one year. After a master of public health training (majoring in Epidemiology and Biostatistics) at the Makerere University in Uganda, he returned to his home university in 2017 to participate in teaching and research. In the same year, he enrolled for a PhD degree at the University of Louvain (Beligum) while continuing to do research in the Kivu, thanks to a “sandwich” scholarship from the Belgian government. With his lovely wife Patience Bwenge, he is blessed (so far) with four Children: Michael Malembaka, Magnifique Bwenge, Axelle Bwenge and Corneille Bwenge.
Abdi Dalmar, Somali Research and Development Institute (SORDI) & BRANCH Consortium
Abdi Dalmar is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Somali Research and Development Institute (SORDI), formerly executive chairman of the first Somalia focused Disaster Resilience leadership, resilience programming and resilience research institute with an extensive experience in handling all aspects of humanitarian and disaster assistance research and programming as an implementer, donor, and academic. As President of SORDI, Abdi works with several donors such as EU, DfID and USA Government funded resilience and humanitarian assistance projects disasters benefiting more than 100,000 people in Somalia, and plays a key role in research, strategic planning, policy and program development, and emergency global response.
Abdi is also the former President of Benadir University. In that role, he was the highest academic and executive person of the largest medical university in Somalia. He chaired the academic council of the university, which sets the curriculum and syllabus of the courses taught at the seven faculties of the university and also managed the finances and external relations. He is a member of the board of trustees of the university.
Abdi is also the former head of Somali Research and Education Network that has the largest of Somali universities’ network in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central. October 2002 to date: Director & Consultant Ophthalmologist. Al-Nur Eye Hospital, Mogadishu, SOMALIA. As consultant ophthalmologist, he is responsible for the running of the hospital and for undertaking outpatient clinics, routine eye surgeries, teaching at the medical school and school of nursing, supervision of the clinic staff. He is also involved in several collaborative research projects. Consultant Ophthalmologist & Head of Training & Research, Right to Sight, London United Kingdom and Clinical Research Fellow in Ophthalmology International Centre for Eye health, Institute of Ophthalmology, London, United kingdom. He was responsible for organization and management of research clinics in Africa (Gambia and Tanzania).
Isabel Garces, Universidad de Antioquia & BRANCH Consortium
Dr. Garcés-Palacio is a researcher in women's health; she is a professor in the Epidemiology group of the School of Public Health at University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia. She completed undergraduate studies in Nutrition at Javeriana University in Colombia and graduate studies in Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham-UAB-(MPH in 2004 and DrPH in 2009). She was a post-doctoral fellow in the Division of Preventive Medicine at UAB during 2009 and 2010. She was honored with a Fulbright scholarship in 2002 and the Outstanding Doctoral Student award in 2009 from UAB’s School of Public Health. She has extensive research experience with underserved populations in the United States and Colombia, focusing primarily on cervical cancer prevention. Her projects have focused on the effect of the social determinants of health in cervical cancer screening and follow-up of abnormalities, and psychological factors related to HPV infection and vaccination. She has also investigated about smoking prevention among women and maternal and child health in the Colombian armed conflict.
Robert Black, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health & BRANCH Consortium
Robert E. Black, M.D., M.P.H. is the Professor and Director of the Institute for International Programs and chair emeritus of the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Black is trained in medicine, infectious diseases and epidemiology. He served as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and at institutions in Bangladesh and Peru on research related to childhood infectious diseases and nutrition. Dr. Black’s current research includes field trials of vaccines, micronutrients and other nutritional interventions, effectiveness studies of health programs, and evaluation of preventive and curative health services in low- and middle-income countries. His other interests are the use of evidence in guiding policy and programs, including estimates of burden of disease, and the strengthening of public health training. He has 700 scientific journal publications and is co-editor of the textbook “Global Health.”
Social Media Content Cards & Posts
Suggested Tweets for General Series Promotion
New! @TheLancet #WCHinConflict Series explores the changing nature of war & conflict, its short & long-term health effects on women & children, strategies for identifying best responses, and interventions supported by in-country assessments & studies: bit.ly/BRANCHconsortium
The #WCHinConflict Series led by BRANCH (Bridging Research & Action in Conflict Settings for the Health of Women & Children), synthesizes existing evidence w/ new modeling & insights from local research partners, humanitarian agencies & CSOs on the ground: bit.ly/BRANCHconsortium
Armed conflicts = growing threat to humanitarian & essential health service delivery: ~630 million women & children (> 8% of 🌍) affected. New @TheLancet Series exposes far-reaching effects of modern warfare on women’s & children’s health: bit.ly/BRANCHconsortium #WCHinConflict
The new Series calls on the global community to prioritize women’s & children’s health in conflict settings with consensus on a framework for identifying high-priority interventions to reach the most vulnerable women & children with the best care possible. bit.ly/BRANCHconsortium
Armed conflict indirectly impacts women’s and children’s health more than those directly affected by the fighting. Humanitarian action must adapt to the evolving nature of conflict. Read @TheLancet’s #WCHinConflict Series: www.thelancet.com/series/conflict-health
Armed conflict is an under-recognised threat to women’s and children’s health. @TheLancet's #WCHinConflict Series lays out a tailored, adaptable approach to humanitarian action for conflict-affected women and children. Read: www.thelancet.com/series/conflict-health #WCHinConflict
At least 630 million women and children are affected by armed conflict each year. @TheLancet's #WCHinConflict Series reveals insights, evidence gaps, and practical recommendations for improving humanitarian support for conflict-affected women and children: www.thelancet.com/series/conflict-health
Suggested Tweets for Comments and Individual Papers
Comment: A commitment to support the world’s most vulnerable women, children and adolescents
Multi-sectors and stakeholder groups have the responsibility to support women's and children's health in conflict setting; all actors must commit to greater alignment, investment and political attention, writes @HelenClarkNZ: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00137-9/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Comment: Doing better for women and children in the context of armed conflict
Zulfiqar Bhutta et al. propose a common and context-specific framework for priority interventions to further support the health of conflict-affected women and children. Read: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00127-6/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Zulfiqar Bhutta et al. advocate for the creation of an independent technical advisory group to help steer efforts to improve health and nutrition action for women and children affected by conflict. Read: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00127-6/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Paper 1: The political and security dimensions of the humanitarian health response to violent conflict
The evolving nature of modern conflict complicates the provision of health services for women and children. Paul Wise et al. suggest how humanitarian interventions can further adapt to disparate political and security dimensions. Read: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00130-6/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Providing health services for conflict-affected women and children is challenged by the evolving complexity of modern warfare. Paul Wise et al. examine how diverse political and security dimensions impact humanitarian action on the ground: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00130-6/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Paper 2: The effects of armed conflict on the health of women and children
10 million deaths in children aged under 5 years can be attributed to conflict from 1995-2015. However, evidence of how armed conflict indirectly effects women and children is sparse, write @ebdStanford et al. in @TheLancet’s #WCHinConflict Series: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00131-8/fulltext
In 2017, 10% of women and 16% of children worldwide lived close to, or were displaced, by conflict. @ebdStanford and colleagues expose evidence gaps in how armed conflict effects women's and children's health: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00131-8/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Paper 3: Delivering health interventions to women, children, and adolescents in conflict settings: what have we learned from ten country case studies?
Using 10 case studies of humanitarian health response in conflict, @neha_s_singh et al. reveal the prioritisation and delivery of lifesaving and essential interventions for conflict-affected women and children. Read: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00132-X/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Paper 4: Prioritizing health and nutrition interventions for women and children affected by armed conflict: a framework for decision making
Existing guidance on promoting women’s and children’s health in humanitarian crises is too general for optimal use in conflict settings. Michelle Gaffey et al. suggest a framework for selecting priority interventions in conflict settings: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00133-1/fulltext #WCHinConflict
Suggested Facebook and LinkedIn Messaging for Series Launch
Armed conflicts are becoming increasingly complex, threatening humanitarian access and the delivery of essential health services, and affecting at least 630 million women and children—over 8% of the world’s population—in 2017. A new four-paper Series, published in The Lancet today, exposes the far-reaching effects of modern warfare on women’s and children’s health.
Current humanitarian crises guidelines are too general to be effective in disparate conflict settings. As a first step towards filling this guidance gap, authors of the series call for agencies leading the global humanitarian response, NGOs, and academia working in conflict settings to establish a decision-making framework to guide governments and humanitarian agencies on selecting priority interventions and improve accountability.
Read the Series in full here: bit.ly/BRANCHconsortium #WCHinConflict