Public Health: Global Public Health Resources

This website is maintained by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and contains profiles of countries around the world including information about the people, geography, government and economics of the countries profiled. It is regularly updated.

Since 1984, the MEASURE DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys) project has provided technical assistance to more than 240 surveys in over 85 countries, advancing global understanding of health and population trends in developing countries. DHS has earned a worldwide reputation for collecting and disseminating accurate, nationally representative data on fertility, family planning, maternal and child health, gender, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and nutrition.

HiT health system reviews (HiTs) are country-based reports that provide a detailed description of each health care system and of reform and policy initiatives in progress or under development. Each review is produced by country experts in collaboration with the Observatory’s research directors and staff. In order to facilitate comparisons between countries, the reports are based on a template, which is revised periodically.

The Failed States Index is an annual ranking of 177 countries across 12 indicators, that is published by Foreign Policy magazine and produced by The Fund for Peace. To learn more about how The Fund for Peace collects and analyzes their data for the 12 indicators as well as how they assign different countries their rankings, view this link http://www.fundforpeace.org/global/?q=indicators .

Gapminder is a non-profit venture – a modern “museum” on the Internet – promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

"The World Health Organization has developed the Global Alert and Response (GAR) site to inform the public about health emergencies, hoping to reduce panic and the disruption of public services vital to daily life. The Web site provides information on the core functions of the GAR system, emphasizing the global impact of epidemic preparedness and response. The focus is clearly on a coordinated international effort to respond to epidemics and other public health emergencies in an expeditious and effective way, preventing outbreaks from spreading. The site offers updates on disease outbreaks, press briefings, and guidance documents for developing standardized approaches to responding to epidemic-prone diseases. Under Full Coverage of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, the guidance documents are arranged by category and title; they also are grouped according to audience--individuals, communities, and national authorities.

The particular value of this site is in the overviews of a given public health concern in the form of time lines, official statements, and situation updates. In addition, the site explains the purpose and activities of expert teams from the Global Alert and Response Network, who are charged with the responsibility of assessing whether a reported disease event warrants international concern. The diseases that do warrant such concern are listed in alphabetical order. An FAQ section provides information on the severity of specific epidemics, vaccinations, travel advisories, and safety issues. This site will benefit anyone who is looking for the latest news and authoritative information on emerging epidemics and other public health problems that are of concern on a global scale." Choice, November 2009.

The new Global Burden of Disease data set information.

Offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of specially selected, highly relevant sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Each of these gateway pages includes an overview, unique "perspectives" articles written by local experts, reference, periodical, primary source and statistical information. Rich multimedia - including podcasts, video, and interactive graphs - enhance each portal. Use Browse Issues and Topics, Country Finder, Basic Search or Advanced Search to explore the database.

This fifth edition of Health at a Glance provides the latest comparable data on different aspects of the performance of health systems in OECD countries. It provides striking evidence of large variations across countries in the costs, activities and results of health systems. Key indicators provide information on health status, the determinants of health, health care activities and health expenditure and financing in OECD countries

The International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) promotes and protects the sexual and reproductive rights and health of women and young people, particularly adolescent girls, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. IWHC advances this agenda by supporting and strengthening local leaders and organizations working in their community and at national and regional levels; by advocating for international policies, programs, and funding; and by seeking to influence U.S. policy on these matters.

OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to:

- Support sustainable economic growth
- Boost employment
- Raise living standards
- Maintain financial stability
- Assist other countries' economic development
- Contribute to growth in world trade

The Organisation provides a setting where governments compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and coordinate domestic and international policies.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), founded in 1902, is the world’s oldest international public health agency. It provides technical cooperation and mobilizes partnerships to improve health and quality of life in the countries of the Americas. PAHO is the specialized health agency of the Inter-American System and serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO). Together with WHO, PAHO is a member of the United Nations system.

The Project Tycho™ database aims are to advance the availability and use of public health data for science and policy. We do this by acquisition of new data, by building infrastructure for data standardization, integration, quality control, and data redistribution, by developing innovative analytics, and by advocacy.

http://www.tycho.pitt.edu/about.php

Transparency International is a global network including more than 90 locally established national chapters and chapters-in-formation. These bodies fight corruption in the national arena in a number of ways. They bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and in business. TI’s global network of chapters and contacts also use advocacy campaigns to lobby governments to implement anti-corruption reforms.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) provides leadership in promoting and coordinating implementation of the sustainable development agenda of the United Nations.

Global Burden of Disease analysis provides a comprehensive and comparable assessment of mortality and loss of health due to diseases, injuries and risk factors for all regions of the world. The overall burden of disease is assessed using the disability-adjusted life year (DALY), a time-based measure that combines years of life lost due to premature mortality and years of life lost due to time lived in states of less than full health.

The WHO GBD project draws on a wide range of data sources to quantify global and regional effects of diseases, injuries and risk factors on population health. The latest assessment of GBD for 2004 is available, together with updated projections to the year 2030, and documentation of methods and data sources. Manuals, software and other resources are also provided for carrying out burden of disease studies.

The WHO Global InfoBase is a data warehouse that collects, stores and displays information on chronic diseases and their risk factors for all WHO member states.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project
reports aggregate and individual governance indicators for 213 economies over the period 1996–2009, for six dimensions of governance:

- Voice and Accountability
- Political Stability and Absence of Violence
- Government Effectiveness
- Regulatory Quality
- Rule of Law
- Control of Corruption

The aggregate indicators combine the views of a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. The individual data sources underlying the aggregate indicators are drawn from a diverse variety of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations.