World health organization

The Crisis Management System invests in communities to drive change from within, breaking systemic barriers and violence. It works from within to change hearts and minds, heal from trauma, and escape violence. This work holistically re-humanizes impacted people, peeling back generations of internalized traumas and self-violence, while addressing systemic short fallings and violence that perpetuate violence. 

WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.

Our goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.

For universal health coverage, we:  

• focus on primary health care to improve access to quality essential services
• work towards sustainable financing and financial protection
• improve access to essential medicines and health products
• train the health workforce and advise on labour policies
• support people's participation in national health policies
• improve monitoring, data and information

Millions of people in Black and Brown marginalized communities across the nation are affected by the plagues associated with structural and systemic racism.  Some of the plagues that make these communities difficult to live in is limited access to adequate health care, disinvestment in schools, poverty, high unemployment, high crime rates, high volumes of violence, mass incarceration, a state of perpetual trauma, and food deserts. The CMS approach is collaborative: working with the community to change their conditions and gives the participants in the program access to the necessary services that meet their individual needs. The CMS approach welcomes community into healing transformation. 

The Crisis Management System (CMS) Model aims to decrease violence and accelerate leadership development in New York City’s marginalized communities. We work directly with community stakeholders and national anti-violence leaders to address the underlying causes of violence: the absence of opportunities and a traumatized community with disproportionate numbers of people who are incarcerated, unemployed, and demoralized. 

CMS is an innovative approach adapted from the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), incorporating a public health prescription for violence prevention.  The CMS Model network is a collaborative array of experts, credible messengers, community-based and faith-based organizations, and public and private sector stakeholders. With roots in New York City neighborhoods in all five boroughs, this network is creating safer environments for NYC youth and community members. The work falls into six categories: Coalition Building, Holistic Wraparound Supports, Emergency Management System Response to Violence Interruption, Community Engagement and Education Events, Media and Public Awareness Campaigns, and Training and Development for Staff and Volunteers.Since the deployment of the CMS Model in Queens, we have documented 562 days without shootings in our focus areas. The last year saw an 85% reduction in the number of shootings in our sphere of influence. 

The introduction to the strategy states that investments in health research 
are generally not sufficient and that research is often not focused on priority 
health problems. At the same time research often does not reflect best 
practices in terms of ethical review and public accountability. Therefore, the 
strategy says, research for health should be organized and managed in a 
systematic and comprehensive manner, and efforts to improve health should 
be based on evidence from research. The strategy calls on WHO, its Member 
States and other partners to work together to produce evidence and tools for 
improving health.
The guiding principles of the strategy are quality (i.e. research that is ethical, 
expertly reviewed, efficient, effective, accessible to all, and carefully monitored 
and evaluated), impact (i.e. research with the greatest potential to improve 
global health security, accelerate health-related development, redress 
health inequities and help attain the Millennium Development Goals), and 
inclusiveness (i.e. partnership, a multisectoral approach, the participation of 
communities and civil society in the research process).
The strategy has five interrelated goals:
• Organization (strengthening of the research culture in WHO so that the 
Organization can lead by example);
• Priorities (focusing research globally on priority health needs);
• Capacity (helping to strengthen national systems for health research);
• Standards (promoting good practice in research, with WHO setting norms 
and standards);
• Translation (strengthening links between health research and health 
policy and practice)