Credit: UNICEF
HAMILTON, Ontario, Canada, Jul 29 2021 (IPS) – In 1995, a highly-respected water expert in South Africa, , in very concise terms illustrated that the country, already battling a growing lack of water then, would likely run out in 25 years if it did not increase its supply.
Twenty-five years have now passed and the country is thirstier than ever. The recent is just one manifestation of the nation’s chronic water scarcity. And there is likely more water trouble ahead.
Water scarcity issues have been vexing experts for decades. Scientists developed and debated various, essentially saying that it is a global issue with strong local specifics. World…
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley and Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. Credit: Pictures in montage ©United Nations
DOMINICA, Sep 22 2021 (IPS) – On September 20, Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina accepted an award from the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network for her country’s ‘striking’ progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
That progress includes an adult literacy rate that jumped from 21 percent in 1981 to 75 percent in 2019 and a spike in access to electricity from 14 percent in 1991 to 92 percent today. The country has also dras…
Dr Ijaz Ali has spent the last 11 years persuading the authorities to use genetically engineered mosquitoes to fight dengue fever. The health department, however, is concerned about unforeseen circumstances that could arise from this method.
Karachi , Nov 2 2021 (IPS) – Twenty-three-year-old Sarah Tajammal felt a sense of “impending doom” as she fought high fever, nausea, bouts of vomiting and extreme fatigue after being diagnosed with dengue two weeks back.
Living in Lahore’s DHA area, which has reported the most dengue cases “because of the damp green environment”, she may have caught it at home, or when she went on a tree plantation drive organized by…
SINGAPORE, Dec 20 2021 (IPS) – While the COVID-19 impact has been predominantly negative, the pandemic appears to have sparked increased interest in developing agricultural technology (agtech) to improve the efficiency of food systems, from input supplies through farming and processing to delivery and retail.
Paul S. Teng
The COVID-19 pandemic has admittedly upended economic activity in the Asia-Pacific region, but a recent event in Singapore (Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit, 16-18 November 2021 ) showed that, in the case of agriculture and food, it has greatly spurred investments in technology to scale up food production sustainably. During 2020-21, momentum has…
The author is Head of the UN Road Safety Fund
School children crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing in Kyrgyzstan.
Credit: Victor Lacken – UNRSF.
GENEVA, Feb 17 2022 (IPS) – When we think about global crises, road safety isn’t one that comes to mind. The reality is that unsafe roads is a health crisis gone rogue.
Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, road traffic injuries are the . And, with an estimated every year, unsafe vehicles and roads affect everyone and impact several areas of development – including environmental sustainability.
…
Transgender refugees from Ukraine have met various challenges including access to hormone medicine since fleeing the war torn country. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS
BRATISLAVA, Apr 25 2022 (IPS) – Soon after Russia invaded her country, Anastasiia Yeva Domani found herself forced to abandon the regime of vital medicines she was taking.
The transgender activist could no longer get hold of the hormone medicines she needed to regularly take in Ukraine as supply chains were disrupted and the vast majority of pharmacies were closed.
“I, like many others, had to pause hormone treatment for a while. We had no choice,” she told IPS.
Domani spent two weeks off her trea…
The United Nations expects an increase in elder abuse because of the ageing populations: the global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to 2 billion in 2050. Credit: Maricel Sequeira/IPS
MADRID, Jun 14 2022 (IPS) – 1 in 6 people over 60 years of age –nearly 141 million people globally– suffers from abuse, according to World Health Organization () estimates.
The (June 1…
A medical officer preparing to give a COVID-19 vaccine in Somalia in May 2021. Credit: Mokhtar Mohamed/AMISOM
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 8 2022 (IPS) – With the outbreak of Monkeypox in non-endemic countries leading to a scramble for vaccines, global health advocates are again calling for equity to be prioritized in the international response.
Equity was a top concern during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency health response. The World Health Organization (WHO) helped spearhead several in an attempt to reduce disparities between nation…
SYDNEY, Jan 2 2023 (IPS) – 2022 has been a year of great uncertainty when it seemed the world perilously reached the brink of self-destruction – be it human-induced climate change or military conflict. Welcoming 2022, we had enough reasons to be optimistic; but it was another ‘year of living dangerously’ – in the words of Soekarno, or an in the words of the late Queen Elizabeth.
Anis Chowdhury
No end to Covid-19
The joy of the COVID vaccine discovery quickly vanished as the blatantly , especially of the wealthy, over the wretched of the earth , and corporate profit triumphed over people’s lives. Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Fauci’s of a more dangerous C…
A nurse walks into a hospital ward in Janakpur in Dhanusha District in southern Nepal. Credit: UNICEF/Rupadhayay
WASHINGTON DC / NEW YORK, Apr 7 2023 (IPS) – As World Health Worker Week draws to a close on April 7, health organizations from around the world have been celebrating women’s vital role in the health workforce and sharing stories about the enormous value they bring to all areas of health and care.
But platitudes are not enough. It’s time for global health leaders to step up and turn these words into action.
Globally, women make up almost 70% of the global health workforce and 90% of the frontline health workforce, contributing over each year.…