The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Self-Care Wheel has won the prestigious Director-General’s Excellence Award for Innovation 2023. This marks a significant milestone in the effort to demystify self-care and promote WHO’s recommended self-care interventions.
The innovative tool, which was developed as part of WHO’s 2023 LEAD Innovation Challenge, has garnered attention for its potential to revolutionise access to sexual and reproductive health services at the community level, was developed by a joint team from WHO headquarters and the India Country Office.
Dr. Manjulaa Narasimham, a scientist within WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and the UN Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), expressed excitement about the award, stating, “Winning this award is a tremendous achievement. Self-care interventions have huge potential for increasing access to sexual and reproductive health services, and the Self-Care Wheel is one of the ways that we hope will help unlock that potential at a community level.”
A publication made on the WHO website on Thursday stated that the Self-Care Wheel underwent initial testing in Bangladesh, India, Morocco, and Nigeria, involving a diverse range of target groups, including adolescent girls, women of reproductive age, caregivers, community health workers, program managers, and pharmacists.
It added that the feedback and insights gathered from the testing phase were instrumental in refining and updating the tool to ensure its effectiveness and ease of use.
