A woman with tuberculosis in Pakistan went undiagnosed for five years because she could not afford the $2 transportation cost from her village to the Civil Hospital in Tharparkar. Credit: OCHA/Zinnia Bukhari

 
Each year, the UN commemorates World TB Day—March 24– to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.

LUSAKA / PUNE, Mar 22 2023 (IPS) – Despite being b…

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss chairs the Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting from her office at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in London. Credit: Simon Dawson /

BRIGHTON, UK, Sep 6 2022 (IPS) – The UK’s new Prime Minister (and former Foreign Secretary), Liz Truss, enters Downing Street with a full and urgent in-tray, dominated by the highest inflation rate for 40 years and concerns across the country about the cost-of-living crisis.

Whilst urgent domestic policy is required, these national issues are symptomatic of a broader set of global crises, including the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

…

Credit: UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

 
The fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP-5) will take place from Monday, 30 October to Friday, 3 November 2023 at the International Conference Centre (CICG) in Geneva, Switzerland. More than eight hundred participants – including Parties’ representatives, non-parties governments, intergovernmental organizations, UN bodies and NGOs – are already confirmed to attend the meeting., according to UNEP.

WASHINGTON DC, Oct 13 2023 (IPS) – As the Minamata Convention on Mercury’s fifth Conference of the Parties (COP5) approaches, momentum builds to adopt the Africa Reg…

A Palestinian family on the street in Beit Lahia in north Gaza. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM/BRUSSELS, Apr 2 2020 (IPS) – The coronavirus is now present in Gaza, the populous Palestinian enclave blockaded by air, land and sea since 2007. An epidemic would be calamitous. Hamas should tighten public health measures; Israel should loosen restrictions so…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 2020 (IPS) – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly his boss’ desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.

Bolsonaro had his previous health minister, displeased by Luiz Henrique Mandetta’s public remarks on the need for lockdowns and physical distancing. Mandetta’s firing was met with outrage across Brazil. Locked-down citizens “Bolsonaro Murder”.

Anis Chowdhury

In his final briefing as minister, Mandetta staff to challenge “denialism” and mount an “unyielding defen…

(@sidchat1) is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya. (@walidbadawi) is the UNDP Resident Representative to Kenya.

A landmark handshake-former Prime Minister Raila Odinga & President Uhuru Kenyatta bridge their differences and sign a declaration of peace between the two political leaders. March 9, 2018. Credit: State House

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 21 2020 (IPS) – Amid various global conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s, the International Day of Peace (IDOP) was established to commemorate the strengthening of the ideals of peace globally. Today, peace is not just the absence of conflict, but a key prerequisite for development. It is in recognition of the crucial linkages bet…

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 4 2020 (IPS) – , issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization and its United Nations partners in mid-July, reports that chronic hunger continued to increase to 690 million worldwide in 2019, 60 million more than in 2014.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Some two billion people worldwide were already experiencing some food insecurity during 2019, a number likely to spike upward due to Covid-19. Although headline hunger numbers have been significantly revised down retrospectively with better official data, the uptrend remains alarming.

The 2020 UN report continues to expand its coverage of malnutrition, going beyond the old narrow focus on dietary energ…

NOIDA, India, Nov 13 2020 (IPS) – “My daughter is eight years old. In May 2017, I had her ‘Khatna,’ her circumcision, done. I had taken her to a traditional cutter. Once back home I made her sleep on the bed. After some time, around 4:00 p.m. I took her to the bathroom, she was bleeding as if she had started her menses. It seemed like she was urinating blood. By 6:00 p.m. my daughter had been bleeding so heavily, the blood had soaked three bed sheets and I was very worried.  And my daughter was quiet and she also kept asking me if she will be fine.” Excerpt from:  How I got her from the hands of death: 2018

The child belongs to the Bohra community, where Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) persists.  A study by my organisation, WeSpeakOut, in 2018 indicates that over 75%…

Women’s empowerment is a crucial aim of the social networking site Fuzia. Credit: Fuzia

NEW YORK, Jan 4 2021 (IPS) – A cherished snapshot of a happy mother and a smiling grandmother is universally associated with a good childhood. In the movies, TV, or media, a broken or depressed mother’s face is hardly seen. But the reality is somewhat different. The measures communities and society take to ensure that women and girls are protected and supported are often questioned.

Shraddha Varma, co-founder, and director of social networking site Fuzia believes in enhancing women’s lives.

“Women empowerment is incomplete without key aspects like health, well…

Joint Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) research documented the impact of the COVID-20 pandemic on women and girls. The research also found promising practices emerged during the pandemic. Credit: UNFPA

Tokyo, Mar 31 2022 (IPS) – Women and girls in the Asia-Pacific region were adversely impacted due to COVID-19 pandemic responses – with marginalized women and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) and gender-based violence (GBV) services profoundly affected.

These were the findings of a study by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) and the United Nations Populati…