Photo: www.tbalert.org
Apr 21 2016 – Every hour, tuberculosis kills nine Bangladeshis. Another seven die each hour from arsenic in drinking water. Simple and cheap solutions are available to avoid almost all these deaths.
Bangladesh has made incredible progress over recent years on many health indicators. But the country continues to face great challenges, like tuberculosis (TB) and arsenic, two of the biggest killers. Many other grave health issues remain too, including factors that threaten mothers and their children.
Bangladesh Priorities can help identify the smartest solutions to national health challenges, as well as many other development issu…
The UN prefers to deliver humanitarian assistance by land rather than air. UN Photo/Fred Noy.
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 3 2016 (IPS) – The UN has begun plans to deliver aid to besieged Syrian towns by air but says there are a number of obstacles in the way and that delivery by land remains its preferred choice.
The UN had promised to plan the air drops if there had been no progress made on access by land to besieged areas by June 1.
That deadline has now passed, with negligible improvement in access, and UN officials Thursday faced numerous questions from journalists about the promised airdrops.
The World Food Program “is implementing its plan to mov…
Melody Kemp/IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7 2016 (IPS) – From forced sterilisation to sexual abuse, young women and men with disabilities are much more likely to have their sexual and reproductive health rights violated than other people.
However despite the increased risks they face, young people with disabilities are also much less likely to get the sexual health education that they need.
Sometimes this is because well-meaning caregivers fail to realise the sexual desires and needs of people with disabilities, Malin Kvitvaer who works for the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) told IPS.
“They see only the deafness a…
A poster about stigma in a HIV testing lab in Uganda. Credit: Lyndal Rowlands / IPS.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1 2016 (IPS) – Eighteen million people, just slightly under half of the people living with HIV and AIDS globally, are now taking life-saving medication, but global efforts to end the disease still largely depend on prevention.
While efforts to expand antiretroviral treatment have been relatively successfully, prevention efforts have been more mixed.
With the help of treatment, mother to baby transmission has dropped significantly. Transmission between adults aged 30 and over has also dropped.
However, transmission rates among adolescents hav…
This article is part of a series of stories and op-eds issued by IPS on the occasion of this year’s World Autism Awareness Day
OTTAWA, Mar 29 2017 (IPS) – I have two children. A daughter who just turned six and a son who just turned three. My daughter was late to walk. My husband and I were pretty worried about why it was taking so long for her to stop ‘bum scooching’ — her preferred method of movement. I consulted Google on more than one occasion to see if other parents had children doing the same. I felt anxious when I read that 18 months was considered very late. She didn’t start until she was 22 months after a few months of physiotherapy.
My son fo…
Paloma Duran is Director of the Sustainable Development Goals Fund
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 6 2017 (IPS) – Just last month business representatives from around the world joined the commemorate their work as part of the .
For much of the last two years, the group has been collaborating with the Fund on how the business community can work towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN’s roadmap to promote inclusive economic growth, social justice and environmental protection.
This group of businesses committed to sustainability has accomplished a number of goals since it was formed in 2015, including establishing a set of pioneering public-private partnerships…
Informal gold mining is one of the main sources of mercury contamination. An artisanal gold miner in El Corpus, Choluteca along the Pacific ocean in Honduras. Credit: Thelma Mejía/IPS.
ROME, Aug 16 2017 (IPS) – The Minamata Convention a legally-binding landmark treaty, described as the first new environmental agreement in over a decade – entered into force August 16.
The primary aim of the Convention is to protect human health and the environment” from merc…
Tim Wainwright is Chief Executive at WaterAid
Credit: Lova Rabary-Rakontondravony/IPS
LONDON, Nov 16 2017 (IPS) – This weekend marks World Toilet Day (November 19) and the news is disheartening. One in three people are still waiting for a toilet; still having to face the indignity and often fear of relieving themselves in the open or using unsafe or unhygienic toilets.
It is frustrating that the headline statistics have not made greater progress two years into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), when having a toilet is such a fundamental boost to gender equality, as well as health, educa…
Sinsiri Tiwutanond Interviews the Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Dr. Frank Rijsberman in Bangkok. Credit: Sinsiri Tiwutanond/IPS
BANGKOK, Feb 26 2018 (IPS) – Energy efficiency in industries presents a unique opportunity for Thailand’s environmental and economic policies as regional trends push towards more inclusive and sustainable green cities for the country and its neighbors, says the Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) Dr. Frank Rijsberman.
Rijsberman, …
Honourable Mr. Moody Awori, is the former Vice President of the Republic of Kenya. Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
President Kenyatta is shown an artistic view of the layout of the multibillion food security project in Galana and Kulalu ranch. Credit: Alphonce Gari
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 28 2018 (IPS) – Africa is rising. But at the same time, Africa is the continent with the largest number of people, (390 million) .
The UN’s Food and Agriculture organization states that 124 million people in 51 countries experienced high levels of food insecurity. “Hun…