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Background: Conflict has become a global reality, particularly impacting millions of children, with the majority of conflicts occurring in developing nations, where 90% of the world's children reside. The Horn of Africa, especially Sudan, has faced severe conflicts, with the year 2023 witnessing one of the toughest conflicts in the region, resulting in a high number of internally displaced persons and refugees. Children, especially in areas like Darfur, Khartoum, Gezira, and Kordofan, bear the brunt of ongoing large-scale conflicts, facing widespread human rights violations and resource damage. Before the conflict that began in April 2023, Khartoum was home to numerous children's hospitals, but now only Elbuluk Hospital remains operational, facing a surge in admissions due to displacement and subsequent returns of civilians seeking medical care. Although malnutrition cases have increased, the case fatality rate associated with severe acute malnutrition has doubled from approximately 6% to 12% by March 2024, possibly due to uneven food distribution amid sporadic peace efforts. Recommendations: Investing in grassroots organizations is crucial for facilitating effective humanitarian aid delivery, as they are uniquely positioned to identify and address local needs promptly and efficiently. Strengthening these organizations enhances their capacity to coordinate aid distribution and provide essential services tailored to regional conditions. Persistent violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in conflict zones impede humanitarian efforts. Robust collaboration between international and local stakeholders is necessary to uphold and enforce IHL, with a focus on protecting civilian lives and ensuring safe, unhindered access for humanitarian aid while respecting the dignity of all affected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanitarian assistance is hindered by a lack of strategies to optimize care delivery through research and organized networks. Distinct from global health, humanitarian assistance struggles to address its multifaceted challenges, including duplicative resources, uncoordinated communication, unregulated staff expertise and safety, financial waste, and poor-quality metrics and care delivery. Implementation science provides an exciting and underutilized approach that can be applied to address these challenges, by studying how to effectively design, implement, optimize, and scale evidence-based interventions. Though successful in well-resourced and global health systems, implementation science approaches are rare in humanitarian assistance. Adopting implementation science approaches including identifying determinants, creating accessible evidence-based intervention bundles, adapting study methodologies for the humanitarian context, and partnering with implementation experts could make these promising approaches more accessible for thousands of humanitarian actors delivering healthcare for millions of vulnerable patients worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Identifying healthcare services and also strengthening the healthcare systems to effectively deliver them in the aftermath of large-scale disasters like the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, especially for vulnerable groups cannot be emphasized enough. This study aimed at identifying the interventions undertaken or proposed for addressing the health needs or challenges of vulnerable groups immediately after the occurrence of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes, as well as for prioritizing their healthcare service delivery in the post-Turkey-Syria earthquake. Methods: In this scoping review compiled with the five steps of the Arksey and O'Malley framework, five databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, OVID, and Google Scholar, were searched for studies published between March and April 2023 in line with the eligibility criteria. Interventions for enhancing post-earthquake healthcare services (PEHS) were grouped into seven (7) categories, adopted from previous guidelines and studies. Each one was assigned a default score of a value equal to one (1), which, in the end, was summed up. Results: Of the 115 total records initially screened, 29 articles were eligible for review. Different interventions they reported either undertaken or proposed to address the healthcare needs and challenges, especially faced by the most vulnerable groups in the aftermath of the Turkey-Syria earthquakes, were categorized into 7 PEHS. They were ranked with their scores as follows: humanitarian health relief (25); medical care (17); mental health and psychosocial support (10); health promotion, education, and awareness (9); disease surveillance and prevention (7); disability rehabilitation (7); and sexual and reproductive health (5). Conclusion: Since there are no proper guidelines or recommendations about the specific or most significant PEHS to prioritize for vulnerable groups after the occurrence of large-scale earthquakes, this scoping review provides some insights that can help inform healthcare service delivery and prioritization for vulnerable groups in the post-2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes and other similar disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]