Publications

Youth Voices Count (YVC) is a regional community network of sexual and gender minority youth in Asia and the Pacific. Founded in 2010 by 40 young gay men, transgender women, and other men who have sex with men, from 19 countries, YVC addresses issues related to HIV, health, and human rights through capacity building, advocacy and community mobilization. Led by a dynamic group of young persons from the region, YVC brings together community leaders to address stigma and discrimination, including self-stigma, and to leverage the power of young people in regional and international gatherings, including its most recent involvement with UNAIDS High Level Meeting on HIV held in 2016 in New York, USA. Youth Voices Count envisions a society in which young people of [all] sexual and gender diversity including [those that identify as] lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identities lead safe and free lives with equal opportunity to achieve their full potential and well-being.

East and North-East Asia (ENEA), as one of the most dynamic, innovative and fast-developing areas of the world, has made remarkable progress over the past two decades − with annual GDP growth higher than that in the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of world. The ENEA subregion is well advanced in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Yet many challenges remain. The ENEA subregion still has a large number of people living in poverty and a large disparity in income among countries, with Japan at one end of the spectrum and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at the other. There has been no fundamental trend in reversing environmental and resource losses, or in reducing the growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The subregion's resource-intensive economic growth has led to large increases in the demand for materials and energy. This publication highlights challenges and priorities of the East and North-East Asian subregion in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Goals Outlook report aims to develop a shared understanding of the opportunities and challenges confronting the region. This report provides a goal by goal snapshot of where we stand, including bright spots, hot spots and emerging issues for our region as we implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Limitations of data and the sheer complexity of the issues addressed by the 2030 Agenda have constrained this effort. Nonetheless, a picture emerges of a region that has, on the aggregate level, achieved several of the Millennium Development Goals but in which too many of its people are still not benefiting from growth and progress and are increasingly vulnerable to economic, social and environmental risks. In 2013, 400 million people lived on less than $1.90 per day (in 2011 PPP). With business-as-usual practices, we may not realize the brighter future that global leaders in 2015 committed to reach in 15 years’ time. This outlook report provides a starting point for dialogue and will support follow-up and review at the regional level. It can also help governments and other stakeholders to reach much-needed social and political consensus and focus on the gaps and priorities for moving forward. It also focuses attention on the opportunities for bringing the Asia-Pacific region together in action on cross-cutting issues and in support of the countries that face multiple challenges.

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.