The U.N. at 70: Time to Prioritise Human Rights for All, for Current and Future Generations
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin is a United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.
Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 2015 (IPS) – Seventy years ago, with the founding of the United Nations, all nations reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.
The commit…
“Get to Zero, Stay at Zero” – The Comprehensive Plan to End Ebola
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2015 (IPS) – The threat is never over until we rebuild, Sierra Leone s President Ernest Bai Koroma stressed at an Ebola Recovery Conference Friday in New York.
On May 9, the west African country of Liberia was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) after 14 long months battling against the disease. However, two months later, in only one week ending Jul. 5, there were 30 confirmed Ebola cases reported in West Africa, three in Liberia, nine in Sierra Leone, and 18 in Guinea, according to the United Nations.
Koroma said that Ebola is a stubborn enemy which tends to keep showing its face.
The battle now is to get the few cases down to zero, and getting our countries and the whole world to stay at zero, Koroma asserted.<…
Mental Health Another Casualty of Changing Climate
Jed Alegado is an incoming graduate student at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Angeli Guadalupe is a medical doctor currently studying under the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Program on Sustainability Science-Global Leadership Initiative. The two are Climate Trackers from the Adopt a Negotiator Project.
A young resident of Tacloban in the Philippines walks through some of the damage and debris left by the Typhoon Yolanda, Dec. 21, 2013. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider…
India’s Children: Plagued by Preventable Diseases from Poor Sanitation
Rural children coming out of the pre school crèche called Anganwadi in Harohalli Taluq 60 kilometres south of Bangalore, India where many lack sanitation and nutritious food at home lowering resistance to water borne infections. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS
BANGALORE, Jan 14 2016 (IPS) – Though the state of Karnataka in India counts for a higher Human Development Index of 0.478 against the national average of 0.472 in the subcontinent, the continued deficit in water and sanitation continues and the children there are bearing the brunt of the lack of infrastructure.
Coupled with the so called Godzilla El Nino of 2015 that washed out the critical southwest monsoons, the…
Mexico Needs to Improve Control of Toxic Chemicals
Two Greenpeace technicians take water samples from a river that runs by the Pajaritos Petrochemical Complez in the Mexican city of Coatzacoalcos, where an Apr. 20 explosion in the Planta Clorados III plant left 32 people dead and 136 injured. Credit: Greenpeace Mexico
MEXICO CITY, May 6 2016 (IPS) – A recent explosion at a petrochemical plant in southeast Mexico highlighted the need to strengthen monitoring of hazar…
Seeds for Supper as Drought Intensifies in South Madagascar
Farmers are in despair at the drought crisis in Southern Madagascar, where at least 1.14 million people are food insecure. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS
BEKILY, Madagascar, Jun 14 2016 (IPS) – Havasoa Philomene did not have any maize when the harvesting season kicked off at the end of May since like many in the Greater South of Madagascar, she had already boiled and eaten all her seeds due to the ongoing drought.
Here, thousands of children are living on wild cactus fruits in spite of the severe constipation that they cause, but in the face of the most severe drought witnessed yet, Malagasy people have resorted to desperate measures just to survive.
Fertilizer Access Grows Farmers, Food and Finance
Smallholder farmers prosper if they have access to knowledge and use of inputs such as fertilizers and credit. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
LOUIS TRICHARDT, South Africa, Jul 26 2016 (IPS) – Brightly coloured cans, bags of fertilizer and packets containing all types of seeds catch the eye upon entering Nancy Khorommbi’s agro dealer shop tucked at the corner of a roadside service station.
But her seeds and fertilizers have not exactly been flying off the shelves since Khorommbi opened the fledging shop six years ago. Her custome…
Kenya Can Lead the Way to Universal Health Care in Africa
Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
The UN in Kenya works with the Keyan Government and partners to ensure health services are delivered where they are most needed. (Credit: UNDP Kenya/James Ochweri)
NAIROBI, Jan 16 2017 (IPS) – Consider this: every year, as a result of unaffordable health care expenses.
For many Kenyan families, the cost of health care is as distressing as the onset of illness and access to treatment. A majority of the population at ri…
Reflections on World Health Day
Martin Khor is Executive Director of the South Centre, a think tank for developing countries, based in Geneva.
The tension between monopoly for patent holders (usually the big drug companies) and access to medicines for all has become acute and there are social movements around the world, both in developing and developed countries, that are figh…
Working Toward a World Without Parkinson’s Disease
John L. Lehr is chief executive officer of the Parkinson’s Foundation.
NEW YORK, Jun 27 2017 (IPS) – As one expert recently noted, if Parkinson’s were an infectious disease, we would call it an epidemic. Worldwide, 10 million people live with Parkinson’s disease, a number expected to double in the next 20 years. While there is no cure for Parkinson’s and no proven way to slow its progression, there is new reason to hope for a world without Parkinson’s.
John L. Lehr
The varied symptoms of Parkinson…