Health

Choose health-program references for coordination, service planning, public data and specialist handoffs, with a short note to record your source and next check.

Editorial Status: draft
Sector: Health
Source Review: 2026-10-26
Corrections: by email
Subsectors: Primary care and health systems, Maternal, newborn and child health, Sexual and reproductive health, Nutrition, Mental health and psychosocial support, Disease outbreaks and epidemic response

Editorial status: draft. Availability to read this page does not change its editorial status or establish external validation. The review scope and unverified items are stated on this page. A review date does not establish clinical, legal, security or field suitability. Check the publisher's current material and the requirements for your task.

Find a Starting Point

Use this page to choose a reference for a health-program planning question, then take the specific question to the responsible health professional or local health authority. It covers coordination, services, data and specialist references. It does not provide diagnosis, treatment, medicine selection or clinical protocols.

Start with the task, rather than collecting every handbook. These are publisher resources, not an OpenAid health service or a ranking. The linked landing pages were read on October 26, 2026. Linked files, software deployments and courses have not all been tested. Check the publisher's current version, access conditions and reuse terms before relying on or redistributing material.

Your Task	Start Here	What to Take Away
Understand how a proposed service fits the wider health system	WHO primary health care	A starting framework linking services, wider health conditions and people. Note the local service or authority you still need to contact.
Find humanitarian health coordination references	Global Health Cluster	Links to coordination guidance and operational resources. Confirm the relevant country coordination arrangement separately.
Find public health figures for a briefing	WHO Global Health Observatory	Indicators, country data and health themes, including maternal and reproductive health, nutrition and immunization. Record the data year and geography, not just the download date.
Understand a structured facility assessment before proposing one	WHO Harmonized Health Facility Assessment	A comprehensive survey package covering service availability, readiness, quality of care, and management and finance. Start with its quick guide; do not treat the package as a short informal inspection.

The choice prompts in the last column are OpenAid editorial suggestions. A global portal cannot confirm whether a local clinic is open, accessible or authorized to provide a particular service.

Humanitarian Quality References

Resource	Publisher	Why Open It
Sphere Handbook	Sphere	Minimum humanitarian standards include health, alongside WASH, food security and nutrition, and shelter. Follow the publisher's health chapter and its context, rather than lifting an isolated number into a project plan.
Core Humanitarian Standard	The CHS publishers	Nine commitments concerning people and communities affected by crises. Use it to locate the original quality and accountability requirements relevant to an organizational question.

These third-party references do not replace national rules, professional responsibilities or approved local procedures. See the Standards and Principles Index for a wider selection and a way to record which reference you chose.

Specialist Reference Portals

These links help a program or operations colleague locate the publisher's material for a qualified colleague. They are not instructions for untrained staff to assess patients or change care.

Resource	Publisher	Scope and Handoff
Child Growth Standards	WHO	Growth standards, application tools and provider training material. Ask the responsible health professional which tools and training are appropriate locally.
Model Lists of Essential Medicines	WHO	Adult and child model-list resources. A link to a model list is not authorization to procure, prescribe or substitute medicines.
Mental Health Gap Action Programme	WHO	Resources concerning services for mental, neurological and substance use disorders. Let the responsible service lead select guidance and supervision arrangements.

Health Information Software

Project	What Its Site Describes	Questions for the System Owner
DHIS2	A software platform with data collection, analysis and sharing features, documentation, demonstrations and hosting information.	Is there an existing authorized system to use? Who would manage configuration, access, support and recurring costs?
OpenMRS	A community-built electronic medical records system, with product documentation and a demonstration.	Who is responsible for patient-record governance, migration, clinical workflows and ongoing operation?

These are external project links, not tools hosted or supported by OpenAid. A demonstration does not establish suitability or security for your organization. Use fictional records for an initial comparison. Do not enter patient information into a public demo, general AI tool or shared planning worksheet.

Make a Short Reference Note

For a planning meeting, select one starting resource and record only what the meeting needs. This optional note is a discovery aid, not a patient form or a facility assessment.

Field	What to Record
Question	The planning decision or information gap, including place and service scope.
Starting reference	Publisher, title, URL and the section or data item you actually read.
Date and context	Access date, document version if shown, and data period and geography where relevant. Write unknown when they are unknown.
What it supports	One narrow point the source supports, separated from your own assumption.
Local check	The fact requiring local confirmation and the responsible role to ask.
Next action	Who will confirm it, and what decision stays open until then.

Fictional example: A small NGO is preparing a meeting about support to a district clinic. Its question is whether to commission a facility survey or first establish what information already exists. The coordinator opens the HHFA introduction and notes its four-module scope. The note says, "This describes a comprehensive survey package; we have not assessed this clinic." The next action is to ask the district health planning lead about existing information, authorization and the appropriate approach. No patient data enters the note.

Before circulating the note, check that it gives a direct source, distinguishes a global reference from a local fact, and names the unresolved question. A specialist reference should lead to a qualified handoff, not a clinical decision by the reader.

What Changed in This Draft

Version 0.5 keeps health-resource discovery and adds a task selector, a reference note and a fictional planning example. It removes the evaluation-library section and links to retired OpenAid programs. It replaces old edition, license and course-access claims with narrow descriptions of the publisher pages read for this revision. This is an editorial source check, not a clinical, field or independent expert review.