United Nations International Research Articles

The role of Household Welfare on Child Well-being in Vietnam

This research analyzes the relationship between household welfare on child well-being in Vietnam. By applying the OLS regression model on a secondary data set from the Vietnam Sustainable Development Goal Indicators for Children and Women survey by the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the period 2020-2021, research shows that high household welfare has positive effects on all six constitutive dimensions of child well-being. The research results serve as a reference base to provide some recommendations to increase and balance household welfare across regions, thereby improving child well-being in Vietnam.

Analysis of a maternal health medicines pipeline database 2000-2021: New candidates for the prevention and treatment of fetal growth restriction.

The Accelerating Innovation for Mothers project established a new database of candidate medicines under development between 2000 and 2021 for five pregnancy-related conditions, including fetal growth restriction. The objective was to assess medicines for fetal growth restriction and their potential for clinical use globally. Landscape analysis. Global (focus on low- and middle-income countries, LMICs). Drugs, dietary supplements and biologics under investigation for prevention or treatment of fetal growth restriction. A research pipeline database of medicines was created through searching AdisInsight, PubMed and various grant and clinical trial databases. Analysis of clinical and preclinical candidates were descriptive. Fetal growth restriction candidates in clinical development were identified and ranked as high, medium or low potential based on prespecified criteria, including efficacy, safety and accessibility. Of the 444 unique candidates in the database across all five pregnancy-related conditions, 63 were for fetal growth restriction. Of these, 31 were in clinical development (phases I, II or III) and 32 were in preclinical development. Three candidates, aspirin, l-arginine and vitamin D, were ranked as having high potential as preventive agents. There were no high-potential candidates for treating fetal growth restriction, although five candidates were ranked as having medium potential: allylestrenol, dalteparin, omega-3 fatty acids, tadalafil, and United Nations International Multiple Micronutrient Antenatal Preparation (UNIMMAP). l-Arginine, aspirin and vitamin D are promising, high-potential preventative agents for fetal growth restriction. Based on the medicines pipeline, new pharmacological agents for fetal growth restriction are unlikely to emerge in the near future.

The relationship between national cultural dimensions, maternal anxiety and depression, and national breastfeeding rates: An analysis of data from 122 countries

IntroductionBreastfeeding is a natural and universal practice across countries and cultures. It is estimated that several thousand lives could be saved per year if optimal breastfeeding practices were adopted across countries. In addition, breastfeeding has numerous health, emotional and developmental benefits for both the mother and her infant. Despite widespread awareness of these benefits, rates of breastfeeding initiation and maintenance remain suboptimal, both in high- and in low- and middle-income countries. Unfavorable breastfeeding outcomes are related to several factors, including variations in cultural values and the occurrence of common mental disorders in women during pregnancy and in the postnatal period. However, the relative contributions of culture and mental health to variations in national breastfeeding rates have not been examined to date.MethodsIn the current study, recent United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) data on lifetime breastfeeding rates is analyzed in two stages, to first explore and then confirm the impact of cultural values and maternal mental health status at a cross-national level.ResultsIt was found that the estimated prevalence of both depression and anxiety disorders in women of childbearing age was negatively correlated with breastfeeding rates. Significant associations were also observed for the cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism and masculinity-femininity. The association between anxiety disorders and breastfeeding outcomes remained significant in multivariate analysis incorporating demographic and health variables that could exert a confounding effect.DiscussionThese results suggest that both cultural values and the assessment and treatment of maternal mental illness should be components of any programme aimed at communicating the benefits of breastfeeding or at improving breastfeeding outcomes. The inclusion of these components could help promote the values of cultural sensitivity, inclusiveness and equity in breastfeeding from a global perspective.

Gender Representation in Classroom Discourse: A Study of School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Selected Colleges of Education in Ghana

Gender equality and gender-fair representation, across all facets of life, especially in education, has been one of the major agenda of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Massive efforts are fronted by the United Nations (UN) and other International Organisations to reduce or eliminate gender-biases and violence. However, the problem still remains an issue of concern especially in developing and Sub-Saharan African countries. This study is an attempt to re-echo and complement the efforts of the UN in creating sufficient gender-awareness in education. It investigates how gender is represented in the discourses and spontaneous interactions, sentences and utterances in the language classroom. Classroom sessions of 9 language tutors from 3 Colleges of Education spread across 3 regions of Ghana were observed and recorded. In total, 360 minutes of verbal structures were analysed, that is, a duration of 40 minutes each from the 9 class sessions. The data collection instruments were audio-recorders and note taking. The qualitative approach was adopted and thematic analysis was used to analyse the recorded discourses. Mehari and Belete’s (2021) conceptual framework of gender representation was adopted. The main finding of the study was that females were underrepresented relative to males in the classroom discourse. Also, the male pronoun, he, was used as universal term for both genders. The males were also ascribed more prominent professional and educational statuses than the females. The females were ascribed domestic chores, less education and low-esteemed professions. There was never a single time when the feminine pronoun, she, was used as a universal term for both genders. The study concludes that there is yet to be significant improvements in the gender representation of females in language use in the classroom.

Desalination of brackish groundwater using self-regeneration hybrid ion exchange and reverse osmosis system (HSIX-RO)

The United Nations International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development (2018–2028) recognized the importance of water to sustainable development and the eradication of poverty and hunger. It voiced alarm over the worsening of issues such as access to clean water, water scarcity, and wastewater as a result of increasing populations and altered climates. One of the most promising solutions to the water shortage is desalination, which can increase the available water supply beyond the currently possible limit. In this study, we analyze the performance of a unique hybrid self-regeneration ion exchange and reverse osmosis (HSIX-RO) system for the desalination of brackish groundwater. In the pretreatment step for protecting RO membrane fouling, the traditional homogenized strong acid cation exchanger (Purolite C100) and shallow shell structured strong acid cation exchanger (Purolite SSTC65) were compared for their efficiency in removing hardness cations from brackish groundwater. The fixed-bed column study concluded that C100 and SSTC65 can treat brackish water containing 250 mg L−1 Ca2+ and 10,000 mg L−1 NaCl at approximately 80 and 76 bed volumes (BVs), respectively. Studying the efficiency of RO system, it has % RO recovery of >70 % at an optimized pressure of 120 psi. An upscale self-regeneration ion exchange and RO system, i.e., HSIX-RO, that can be applied for a pilot-scale study was proposed. This proposed study suggested that HSIX-RO can be suited for the desalination of brackish groundwater with minimum use of an additional salt and can be self-sustained using an automated control. It was noted that the HSIX-RO system cannot be effectively applied to groundwater (TDS < 5000 mg L−1) nor seawater (TDS > 30,000 mg L−1) contained high Ca2+ and Mg2+ due to low regeneration efficiency and short length service runs, respectively.

The child-friendly cities concept in China: A prototype case study of a migrant workers’ community

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) initiatives of Child-Friendly Cities have operated in more than 3000 cities around the world. However, the concept of making the city child-friendly has not been extensively recognized in China. This article aims to report a regeneration project in a migrant workers’ community, the Mingdong, and is used to illustrate the reactions of residents to youth participation (youth civic engagement) and the project through an international workshop. The article concludes with a discussion of how social workers help in the social development of migrant communities by promoting youth participation, community social awareness and social cohesiveness.

Relationship between particle size distribution and the PFD80 transportable moisture limit of iron ore fines

Since 2011, mineral cargoes shippers shall comply with a regulatory framework established by the United Nation's International Maritime Organization (IMO): the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code. Some wet mineral cargoes, including some types of iron ore fines, may liquefy during ocean transport, i.e., the cargo can shift and lead the vessel to sink. According to the IMSBC Code, for safe shipping, the moisture content of these cargoes shall be lower than a regulatory limit: the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML). Iron ore fines TML can be obtained through the Modified Proctor/Fagerberg Test for Iron Ore Fines (PFD80), a dynamic compaction test which consists in compacting ore samples at different moisture contents, the TML being the moisture content at which the material reaches 80% saturation. TML has become a relevant parameter for the mining industry, firstly due to the crew and ship safety aspect, and because failure to comply with the TML can legally interrupt an ore shipment or even an entire mining/shipping operation. Therefore, knowledge related to the TML and the understanding of how it varies with ore characteristics are essential. Despite that, research works on this topic are still scarce. In this study, the relationship between particle size distribution and the TML of iron ore fines was experimentally investigated. The results have shown that the TML is highly related to the particle size distribution of the tested material, and that the TML variations can be explained by structural packing effects caused by particle interactions during compaction for different types of size distribution. It was also found that the coefficient of uniformity can be used for numerically representing the particle size distribution in order to establish relationships with the TML. Another relevant conclusion is that the TML of a mixture of different iron ore fines may not be the result of the weighted average of the individual components' TML. This knowledge is of utmost importance for the industry, as blends of different ore products are common practice, and this finding is relevant for other cargoes that are susceptible to liquefaction. • The relationship between TML and particle size distribution was investigated. • The PFD80 TML is highly dependent on the particle size distribution. • Structural packing effects explain this relationship. • The coefficient of uniformity is correlated to the TML. • The TML of a mixture may not be the weighted average of the components TMLs.

First Report of the Special Rapporteur on Subsidiary Means for the Determination of Rules of International Law. United Nations International Law Commission, A/CN.4/760, 13 February 2023

First Report of the Special Rapporteur on Subsidiary Means for the Determination of Rules of International Law. United Nations International Law Commission, A/CN.4/760, 13 February 2023

Government policy, law, and regulation: A perspective on early childhood development in Asia

Early childhood is essential for cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund [UNICEF], 2022). This study aims to explain government policy, law, and regulation, as well as social community participation, for early childhood development in Asia. The qualitative approach was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 key informants, employing purposive sampling. Content analysis was performed on the data. The findings revealed that governments have put policies in place to help families with children and to increase access to childcare services. Childcare policies differ by country and are influenced by cultural, economic, and political factors. The government policies law and rules in China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand aid families with children and provide access to childcare services. However, the level of government support, the availability of childcare facilities, and the extent to which employers are encouraged to provide support for working parents vary. Furthermore, social community participation in childcare services is important and can take various forms, including volunteer work, advocacy, financial support, use of services, and community engagement. By participating in these ways, communities can help to ensure that all children have access to the high-quality care that they need to thrive.

Trends of the prevalence of malnutrition in India and Himachal Pradesh, a comparative assessment

Introduction: Malnutrition poses a significant threat to child health, with approximately 45% of under-five child deaths attributed to malnutrition, predominantly affecting low- and middle-income countries. This study delves into the trends of malnutrition in India and Himachal Pradesh, examining the interplay between infection and malnutrition and the escalating concern of overweight in developing countries. Objective:To compare malnutrition rates among under-5 children in Himachal Pradesh and India, utilizing data from the National Family Health Survey rounds (NFHS-3, NFHS-4, and NFHS-5). Additionally, the research seeks to identify districts in Himachal Pradesh with the poorest malnutrition indicators. Materials and Methods: A narrative description methodology is employed, utilizing NFHS fact sheets for India and Himachal Pradesh. The comparative analysis focuses on under-5 malnutrition indicators, including stunting, wasting, severe wasting,underweight, and overweight, with percentage distribution graphs for visual representation. Results: Wasting prevalence in Himachal Pradesh decreased from 19% in 2005 to 13.7% in 2015 but rose to 17.4% in 2019, with Kangra district showing a significant increase. Severe wasting increased in both India and Himachal Pradesh. Stunting decreased in India but increased in Himachal Pradesh, notably in Bilaspur district. Underweight declined in India but increased in Himachal Pradesh, primarily in Bilaspur district. Overweight showed an increasing trend in both India and Himachal Pradesh. Conclusion: Malnutrition,encompassing undernutrition and overnutrition, is escalating in India and Himachal Pradesh. While India exhibits declining trends in undernutrition, severe wasting is on the rise. Himachal Pradesh initially showed improvement but experienced a recent upturn in malnutrition indicators. Both regions face alarming rates of stunting and wasting, categorizing them as "very high" by United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) standards. Despite various programs, efforts to alleviate child malnutrition have faltered.

Years of life lost: A call to achieve equitable end-of-life care among children.

Significant disparities continue to exist in access to inpatient pediatric hospice care among children at the end-of-life. Increasingly more children at this stage are dying in the hospital or at home on hospice which is not always an acceptable option to the children and their families. Two clinical case examples illustrate implementation of these options in practice. A missing link exists in healthcare systems across developed and developing countries in pediatric end-of-life care. Currently, the primary options involve selecting between hospital and home-based hospice care. Proposing to increase access to inpatient pediatric hospice services could potentially increase acceptability of this option to honor the child in line with the family's preferences, goals, wishes, and values. In addition, inpatient pediatric hospice could offset costs from preventable hospitalizations and overall high-cost healthcare utilization. Oftentimes, readmissions impact decision-making among caregivers that include changes in code status from Do Not Resuscitate/Do Not Intubate (DNR/DNI) to full curative care, thereby resulting in medicalization or overmedicalization of the child. It follows that reduced healthcare expenditures will increase cost efficiency across the healthcare system. Achieving health equity in palliative care among adult and pediatric patients at the end-of-life is a longstanding goal of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Proposing to mitigate disparities in palliative care among children through inpatient hospice as another viable option for their families could contribute to the larger overarching goal of achieving health equity in end-of-life care across the world.

Effectiveness of Integrated Management of Neonatal Childhood Illness (IMNCI) Tool in Chest X-Ray Positive Pneumonia Cases among Children Ages 2 Months to 5 Years A Cross-Sectional Study

IMNCI tool has widely been applied in many countries for screening, clinical diagnosis, and as a management tool for many common diseases, including cases of pneumonia. This study determines the effectiveness of IMNCI tools in the diagnosis of pneumonia as that of diagnosing pneumonia by gold standard method of X-ray Chest PA view besides finding out the sustainability in using the IMNCI guided antibiotics in managing cases of pneumonia from first care to the tertiary care facilities. Methodology: We conducted a prospective, cross-sectional study among children with World Health Organization (WHO) Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) chest-indrawing pneumonia at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan and assessed CXR examinations. The primary endpoint was interrater reliability between CXR for pneumonia diagnosis among children with WHO IMCI chest-indrawing pneumonia. Results: The study was done among 165 children aged between 2 months to 59 months who have visited Fatima Hospital, Baqai Medical University, due to their medical condition of cough OR fast breathing. Most of the mothers had been taking antibiotics for their sick children before they reached our set up and very few of them (15%) were found adherent to taking IMCI guided IMCI-guided antibiotic Amoxicillin, whereas the rest of all a huge majority of the cases were found using non-IMCI guided antibiotics constituting 85%, means other than oral Amoxicillin. A Sensitivity of 68.75% and a Specificity of 92.3% were found to IMCI tools validity in diagnosing pneumonia against X-ray chest positivity. Conclusion: This study concludes that the accuracy of IMCI tools in recognizing childhood pneumonia was good rather than the diagnosis as that to the positive findings in Xray Chest findings. However, with good sensitivity and the best specificity with high PPV, it can be the best screening tool for the early detection of pneumonia among children&lt;5 years and can achieve a better outcome with in-time recognition, appropriate care seeking, and early intervention avoiding irrational antibiotics. Keywords: ARI: Acute Respiratory Infection, AIDS: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, BMU: Baqai Medical University, IMCI: Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, IMNCI: Integrated Management of Neonatal &amp; Childhood Illness, WHO: World Health Organization, UNICEF: United Nations International Children’s Education Funds, MDG: Millennium Development Goal, SDG: Sustainable Development Goal, MNCH: Maternal, Neonatal &amp; Child Health Program

A Comparative Study on Percentage of Women (Age 15–49) Attending at Least One Antenatal Care by Skilled Health Personnel in SAARC Countries (2015-2030)

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) plays an important role in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in South Asia. There is an unacceptably high burden of neonatal mortality and stillbirths in the SAARC region. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate the percentage of at least one ANC visit from 2015 to 2030 from previously available data and to compare the progress among SAARC nations. Methodology: This is a secondary analysis study. Data indicating percentages of women attending at least one ANC by skilled health personnel in SAARC countries Maternal and newborn health coverage dataset-May 2021 by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was used. Regression Coefficient was used first to check the strength of the relationship for prediction at a 5 % significance level. Then, the percentages of ANC visits were predicted. To compare the percentages among countries, non-Parametric correlation Kendall’s tau was used. Findings: Results indicate that SAARC countries are struggling to reach at least one ANC visit. Comparison among these countries has shown no significant trend and it is concluded that there is no significant difference among SAARC countries' women ANC visits from 2015 to 2030 at a 5% significance level for all years. Practical Implications: The estimations of this research would help to develop innovative strategies for uplifting maternal health among SAARC countries to reach Sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Assessment of water and carbon use efficiency in the SAARC region for ecological resilience under changing climate

According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) assessment report released in 2021, South Asian countries were among the most vulnerable in the world to the effects of climate change on future generations. Hence it is become crucial to assess how resilient the ecosystems are to these changes. The current study incorporated a novel approach, the Combined Ecological Resiliency Indices Approach (CERIA), to assess ecological resiliency status at various scales during hydroclimatic disturbances. Water and carbon use efficiency (WUE and CUE, respectively) were used as indicators for the examination of ecological resilience. The standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was adopted to assess the initial stage of hydroclimatic disturbances (meteorological drought). A resiliency analysis based on combined Rd and Rd' indices (derived from WUE and CUE, respectively) revealed that just 1.87% land cover area of the entire SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) region's total 17 land cover classes was resilient to meteorological drought. At the river basin scale, only 16.58% of the total 62 river basins were found resilient. Only 11 (27.46%) of the 21 climate classes on the Koppen climate classification scale were resilient to the hydro-climatic disturbance period. To achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs goal-2 and goal-13) of ‘No Hunger’ and ‘Protect the Planet’, the Joint Ecosystem Resiliency Enhancement Programme (JEREP) should be adopted in land cover, river basins, or climatic classes of the SAARC region that were highly affected.

Access to handwashing with soap facility: a post-sensitisation investigation of drivers

Abstract As part of measures to promote good hygiene, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund adopted affordable handwashing with soap facility (Tippy-Tap), and implemented sensitisation training for residents in the Binduri District of Ghana. In the context of good hygiene technology adoption, this study examines how poor communities have adopted and used Tippy-Tap over a period of 1 year. The study further identifies the associated post-sensitisation drivers of the Tippy-Tap. In addition to descriptive analysis, this study relies on post-sensitisation cross-sectional data and a logit regression with its marginal effects for the analysis. The results show that after the sensitisation programme, the adoption and use rate now stand at 90%, up from the baseline of 4%. The study provides evidence that female household-heads are more likely to adopt and use the Tippy-Tap relative to male household-heads. The study further reveals that being educated increases the probability of accessing the Tippy-Tap facility by about 23%. Subsequently, this study finds that personal, household, and community-level characteristics are the key drivers of the high adoption and use rate. In conclusion, the study finds evidence of a high adoption and use rate of the Tippy-Tap initiative after its sensitisation. The study recommends extensive sensitisation of hand hygiene using community-level social norms and practices.

The #VaccinesWork Hashtag on Twitter in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Network Analysis.

Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions for the prevention of COVID-19. Toward the end of April 2021, UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund), alongside other organizations, were promoting the hashtag #VaccinesWork. The aim of this paper is to analyze the #VaccinesWork hashtag on Twitter in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing the main messages shared and the organizations involved. The data set used in this study consists of 11,085 tweets containing the #VaccinesWork hashtag from the 29th to the 30th of April 2021. The data set includes tweets that may not have the hashtag but were replies or mentions in those tweets. The data were retrieved using NodeXL, and the network graph was laid out using the Harel-Koren fast multiscale layout algorithm. The study found that organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Gavi were the key opinion leaders and had a big influence on the spread of information among users. Furthermore, the most shared URLs belonged to academic journals with a high impact factor. Provaccination users had other vaccination-promoting hashtags in common, not only in the COVID-19 scenario. This study investigated the discussions surrounding the #VaccinesWork hashtag. Social media networks containing conspiracy theories tend to contain dubious accounts leading the discussions and are often linked to unverified information. This kind of analysis can be useful to detect the optimal moment for launching health campaigns on Twitter.

Breastfeeding—An Essential Newborn Nutrient

AbstractBreastfeeding is an art/skill. Globally, it is gaining a steady prominence as World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have specified exclusive breastfeeding for the initial half year. They have likewise offered significance to initiation of breastfeeding within half an hour to 1 hour after birth that has a critical effect on the developing infant as the colostrum in the breast milk supports immunity in the developing baby and newborn child, following birth helps in invigorating the posterior pituitary, release of Oxytocin and thus helps in uterine contraction and forestalls postpartum hemorrhage in postnatal mothers.Analysis of data from 123 countries shows that babies are breastfed at some point in their lives. However, the rate shifts between low-income, middle-income and high-income countries. It is evaluated that in low- and middle-income countries, approximately 4% of children are never breastfed, while in high-income countries it is 21%. As indicated by the WHO, in excess of 20 million infants are born weighing under 2.5 kg and unfortunately developing nations are facing the brunt of this.One of the WHO Global Targets 2025 is to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months up to at least 50% to improve maternal, infant, and young child nutrition. Unfortunately, only 38% of infants aged 0 to 6 months are exclusively breastfed globally.Numerous factors contribute to produce a positive situation for breastfeeding. Within the health care organizations, mothers need information and support to breastfeed immediately after birth and beyond. Indeed, studies have discovered that implementation of breastfeeding interventions within the health care organizations and community can possibly expand the rates by 2.5 times.In India, government has implemented 6 months maternity leave that benefit many working mothers to exclusive breast feed their newborns.Breastfed children perform better intelligence tests, and are less likely to be overweight and diabetic in later life. If the breastfeeding rate improves in compared to the current rates, then additional 20,000 deaths can be prevented due to breast and ovarian cancer. Studies have found that exclusive breastfeeding can have influence on development of milestones. An ability that a child must achieve by a certain age is developmental milestone. The milestones can be physical, social, emotional, cognitive and communication skills like walking, sharing, expressing emotions, identifying familiar sounds, and talking.·

Breastfeeding Practices, Infant Formula Use, Complementary Feeding and Childhood Malnutrition: An Updated Overview of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape.

Background: With increasing global rates of overweight, obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) along with undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is no exception. This review focuses on specific nutrition parameters among under five years children, namely ever breastfed, exclusive breastfeeding, mixed milk feeding, continued breastfeeding, bottle feeding, introduction of solid, semi-solid, or soft foods and malnutrition. Methodology: PubMed, Google Scholar, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) databases, World Health Organization (WHO) databases, the World Bank databases and the Global Nutrition Report databases were explored between 10 January and 6 June 2022, to review the nutrition situation among under five years children in the EMR. Results: The regional average prevalence of ever breastfed, exclusive breastfeeding, mixed milk feeding, continued breastfeeding, bottle feeding, introduction of solid, semi-solid, or soft foods was estimated at 84.3%, 30.9%, 42.9%, 41.5%, 32.1% and 69.3%, respectively. Iran, Iraq, Libya and Palestine have seen a decline over time in the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding. Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reported early introduction of infant formula. Moreover, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were seen to introduce food early to the child, at between 4–6 months of age. The estimated weighted regional averages for stunting, wasting and underweight were 20.3%, 8.9% and 13.1%, respectively. Of concern is the increasing prevalence of stunting in Libya. As for overweight and obesity, the average prevalence was reported to be 8.9% and 3%, respectively. Lebanon, Libya, Kuwait and Palestine showed an increased trend throughout this time. Conclusions: In this review, the suboptimal infant and young child feeding patterns and the twofold incidence of malnutrition in the EMR are highlighted and we urge the prioritizing of measures to improve children’s nutrition.

50th Edition of WILGA Symposium on Photonics Applications

The Jubilee 50th edition of WILGA Symposium on Photonics Applications crowns 25 years of diligent service by this exceptional series of scientific and technical meetings to the local and international photonics research, academic, industrial, business and societal communities. The paper reviews concisely, and only generally without details, some of the chosen topical tracks related to photonics present during the previous meetings and in particular during WILGA 2022 sessions. The paper summarizes shortly the achievements of WILGA Photonics Applications meetings of young researchers, during the quarter of a century, and gives a general sense of the unique nature of these meetings. Wider description of WILGA achievements are available in around 30 Proc. SPIE volumes published continuously under the common title Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments in the years 2002-2022. Full Text: PDF ReferencesWILGA Symposium on Photonics Applications DirectLink Sympozjum WILGA CrossRef R.S.Romaniuk, "Photonics Applications, WILGA Symposium 1998-2022", Elektronika 63(4) 30, 2022 CrossRef R.R. Romaniuk, "More light in Polish optical fibers", Proc. SPIE 5125 (2002) CrossRef WILGA Photonics Applications 2021, Proc. SPIE 12040 CrossRef WILGA Photonics Applications 2022, Proc. SPIE, in press CrossRef United Nations International Year of Glass 2022 DirectLink .

The conception of healthcare partnerships in Balochistan

This study is about the conception of healthcare partnerships in Balochistan. Nutrition Cell Balochistan is working in partnership with United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) to overcome malnutrition in Balochistan. The partnership is unsuccessful in delivering the desired outcome, as the literature suggest conceptualisation of partnership also effect the efficiency of a partnership. The research identifies the need for this partnership and explains the concept of partnership in context of Balochistan. The study uses a case study research method. As the study is about the lived experiences of people about the concept of partnership in Balochistan, so conducting interviews can give us thick description about the conception of the process. To further analyse the process observation technique was used. The findings of research indicate that the primary motive for formation of this partnership is the deficiency of money and practical services to address malnutrition. Political and social power relations influence this partnership. Due to these power relations, the partnership lacks mutuality, accountability, transparency and monitoring. There is limited mutual support and partners do not enjoy equal ownership.