Tools and Guidelines

The programming guidelines aims to support organizations to implement programmes that address the realities and rights of YKP in Asia Pacific. The guidance provided herein is grounded in the experiences of a diversity of YKP and aims to introduce creativity, critical thinking and inspiration to the sector.

The objectives of these guidelines are to provide updated, evidence-informed clinical and practical recommendations on the case management of people with symptoms of STIs; and to support countries in updating their national guidelines for the case management of people with symptoms of STIs. These guidelines include the management of symptomatic infections related to urethral discharge syndrome, including persistent urethral discharge syndrome; vaginal discharge syndrome, including persistent vaginal discharge; anorectal infection; genital ulcer disease syndrome; and lower abdominal pain syndrome. These guidelines are intended for programme managers for STI prevention and control at the national level and the health-care providers at the frontline – primary, secondary and tertiary health care.

The World Health Organization (WHO) uses the following working definition of self-care: Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker. The scope of self-care as described in this definition includes health promotion; disease prevention and control; self-medication; providing care to dependent persons; seeking hospital/specialist/primary care if necessary; and rehabilitation, including palliative care. It includes a range of self-care modes and approaches. While this is a broad definition that includes many activities, it is important for health policy to recognize the importance of self-care, especially where it intersects with health systems and health professionals.

These consolidated guidelines on HIV prevention, testing, treatment, service delivery  and monitoring bring together existing and new clinical and programmatic recommendations across different ages, populations and settings, bringing together all relevant WHO guidance on HIV produced since 2016. It serves as an update to the previous edition of the consolidated guidelines on HIV. These guidelines continue to be structured along the continuum of HIV care. Information on new combination prevention approaches, HIV testing, ARV regimens and treatment monitoring are included. There is a new chapter on advanced HIV disease that integrates updated guidance on the management of important HIV comorbidities, including cryptococcal disease, histoplasmosis and tuberculosis. The chapter on general HIV care, contains a new section on palliative care and pain management, and up to date information on treatment of several neglected tropical diseases, such as visceral leishmaniasis and Buruli ulcer. New recommendations for screening and treating of cervical pre-cancer lesions in women living with HIV are also addressed in this chapter.

The aim of this toolkit is to support community organizations to increase awareness of and generate demand for PrEP for HIV prevention; from design and implement sex-positive activities to promote and increase demand of PrEP at the country level, to establishing collaboration and engagements with healthcare providers, civil society organizations, private sectors and other stakeholders in developing sustainable online campaign which adequately respond to the needs of key population communities at the country level.

This publication, produced by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, has been developed to support the implementation of the  WHO Guidelines on mental health promotive and preventive interventions for adolescents, released in 2020. The Toolkit includes a core set of evidence-informed strategies to promote and protect adolescent mental health. These strategies are: the implementation and enforcement of laws and policies; the creation of safe environments; the provision of support to parents and other caregivers; and the implementation of programmes focused on helping adolescents develop social skills and emotional intelligence. Tools to guide implementation and examples of programmes already introduced around the world are included.

These guidelines provide new and updated recommendations on the use of point-of-care testing in children under 18 months of age and point-of-care tests to monitor treatment in people living with HIV; the treatment monitoring algorithm; and timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV who are being treated for tuberculosis.

Digital Adaptation Kits (DAKs) are part of the SMART guidelines initiative and include data and health content consistent with WHO’s antenatal care recommendations, generically applicable to digital systems. They are software-neutral, operational, and structured documentation based on WHO clinical, health system and data use recommendations to systematically and transparently inform the design of digital systems. Components include: (1) linked health interventions and recommendations; (2) personas; (3) user scenarios; (4) business processes and workflows; (5) core data elements mapped to standard terminology codes (e.g. ICD); (6) decision support; (7) programme indicators; and (8) functional and non-functional requirements. This DAK focuses on antenatal care (ANC), and is among the different health domains in which DAKs are being developed.

These guidelines promote responsible and effective representation and reporting of violence against women and violence against children for public advocacy purposes, such as media coverage and awareness raising campaigns. While the causes, risk factors, prevalence, patterns and consequences of violence against women and violence against children may differ, many of the considerations for ethically, safely and effectively communicating these issues are crosscutting.

Under the framework of the UN Joint Global Programme on Essential Services, UN Women, together with UNODC and the IAWP, have developed a handbook on gender-responsive police services for women and girls subject to violence. The handbook is based on and complements existing global and country-specific handbooks and training materials for law enforcement and covers areas such as gender-responsive police investigations, prevention, intersectionality and institutional change.