is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
Dr Natalia Kanem, Chief of UNFPA, “We are steadfastly committed to our three goals: Zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and the elimination of harmful practices including violence that affect women and girls”. Credit: UNFPA Tanzania
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 31 2018 (IPS) – Teenage pregnancy in Kenya is a .
The countdown to a New Year has begun. Can 2019 be a year of affirmative action to ensure hope and opportunity for Kenya’s adolescent girl?
Consider this. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says that when a young adolescent girl is not married during her childhood,…
Jack Niedenthal, the secretary of Health and Human Development in the Republic of Marshall Islands stands in front of the poster that records the dark past of the Pacific island nation and the need for good healthcare. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
MAJURO, Apr 5 2019 (IPS) – In Jack Niedenthal’s office in Majuro, there is an ominous reminder of the dark history of the Marshall Islands—once the site for dozens of nuclear tests conducted by the United States between 1946 and 1962. But it also provides a strong message about the future of island nation.
“Given what the Marshall Islands has done for humankind, we deserve the best healthcare in the world,” reads a poster…
Dexter, a 25-year-old fisherman from Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, received treatment for Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy, for over a year. He has been cured of the disease. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
MANILA, Sep 9 2019 (IPS) – Increasing awareness of the continuing existence of Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) is critical to sustaining effective public health efforts against the disease, eliminating the social stigma associated with it, and halting its transmission.
That was the consensus reached by participants at the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s Disease in Manila on Sept. 9, following a lecture by Dr. A…
Dr. Julitta Onabanjo is Regional Director, United Nations Population Fund, East and Southern Africa
UNFPA-supported midwives ensured that this young woman gave birth safely in Bor Hospital, South Sudan. © UNFPA South Sudan
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Nov 12 2019 (IPS) – This is a special year for all rights-based health advocates, as we celebrate 25 years of the International Confe…
Parliamentarians from India and Japan are already discussing how to implement plants on sexual and reproductive health and rights soon after the recent Nairobi Summit on International Conference on Population Development (ICPD25). Credit : Jaideep Hardikar/IPS
MBABANE , Jan 10 2020 (IPS) – Parliamentarians from India and Japan have hit the ground running by acting soon after the recent Nairobi Summit on International Conference on Population Development (ICPD25).
The three-day summit in the Kenyan capital – which was from Nov. 12 to 14 – concluded with partners from 180 countries making over 1,200 commitments towards fast-tracking the promise made in …
The author is journalist and communications specialist; veteran of Al Jazeera English, BBC and CNN International.
Mar 16 2020 – First of all, I wish everyone reading this good health.
Second of all, I wish for everyone to get informed I mean properly informed from the many reliable sources out there. These areextraordinary times and every one of us needs to find a way to getthrough them the best way we can for ourselves, our families andour communities.
COVID-19 has governments around the world asking us tofundamentally change the way we live: working from home ifpossible, restricting travel, sports and entertainment venues areshutting their doors, as are schools and universities. Someaccounts say it’s all happening “amid fears of coronavirus” but Ithink tha…
New cases daily for COVID-19 in world and top countries. Chris55 /wikipedia, CC BY-SA
LONDON, Apr 3 2020 (IPS) – Suppose we wanted to estimate how many car owners there are in the UK and how many of those own a Ford Fiesta, but we only have data on those people who visited Ford car showrooms in the last year. If 10% of the showroom visitors owned a Fiesta, then, because of the bias in the sample, this would certainly overestim…
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…
A Rohingya woman crosses the border from Myanmar into Bangladesh near the village of Anzuman Para in Palong Khali. Credit: UNHCR/Roger Arnold
NEW YORK, May 11 2020 (IPS) – As the COVID-19 mayhem carries on in most countries, the role of mothers, daughters, and female caregivers have been affected the most. Besides looking after the household and home schooling children, they are also working on the front lines, actively or passively caring for their respective communities.
Globally, women make up of workers in the health and social welfare sectors. Nearly women work in agriculture and women do as much unpaid care-work at home as men. Two such women share…