health

is the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Kenya.

The President meets Mrs Jumwa Kabibu who after 50 years of misery underwent a successful UN supported fistula surgery. Photo Credit: Newton/UNIC

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 16 2016 (IPS) – President Uhuru Kenyatta warmly welcomed dozens of U.N Agencies, development partners and senior Government officials to the State House on 02 November 2016 to discuss the joint development plan from 2014 – 2018.

He is perhaps the only head of state in Africa to take on this responsibility personally and believes in the transformational power of the Government-UN partnership to address national priorities for sus…

Girls walk across an embankment in the Satkhira district of Bangladesh. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

DHAKA, Mar 23 2017 (IPS) – Breaking taboos surrounding menstruation, a project to distribute sanitary napkins to girls in one district of Bangladesh has had a positive impact on school dropout rates – and should be replicated in other parts of the country, experts say.

“In Bangladesh, girls neither get enough support from their families nor their teachers in school during this difficult time, and their problems intensify and multiply as they cannot share anything out of sham…

ROME, Jun 5 2017 (IPS) – Now that president Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the world’s largest polluter in history—the United States, from the Paris Accord, perhaps one of the most specific warnings is what a United Nations independent expert on rights and the environment has just said: “We should be fully aware that we cannot enjoy our basic human rights without a healthy environment.”

Speaking in Geneva ahead of the on Monday 5 June, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, John H. Knox, “We should all be alarmed at the accelerating loss of biodiversity on which healthy ecosystems depend.”

We depend on health…

Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine is Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Albert K. Barume is chairman of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples

Women from Nepal’s indigenous tribe. Credit: Mallika Aryal/IPS

GENEVA / NEW YORK, Aug 7 2017 (IPS) – The world’s indigenous peoples still face huge challenges a decade after the adoption of an historic declaration on their rights, a group of United Nations experts and specialist bodies has warned. Speaking ahead of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August, the grou…

Heather Barr and Amanda Klasing are senior women’s rights researchers at Human Rights Watch.

Girls cover their faces to protect themselves from the stench of a filthy and malfunctioning restroom in their school. at this school, girls have no toilets of their own and their only option …

Laboratory Technician Herbert Mtopa collects biological samples at a clinic in Zimbabwe’s Shamva District under a CultiAF project to assess exposure of women and children to aflatoxins. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 22 2018 (IPS) – In the absence of concerted efforts to raise awareness on the dangers of aflatoxin to humans and domestic animals, advances in technology for early detection of aflatoxin in cereals and seeds such as maize will come to naught,…

There are concerns that Ebola could spread more widely without proper health screenings at Congo River ports. Photo: IOM

KINSHASA, May 25 2018 – Last week, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), cases of Ebola were confirmed in Mbandaka, a city with a population of 1.2 million people some 150 kilometres from where the outbreak originated in Bikoro Health Zone, Equateur Province.

The fact that Mbandaka is connected by river routes to DRC’s capital Kinshasa as well as cities in the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, has fuelled concerns that the disease could spread more widely.

In order to mitigate this risk, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, the DRC…

This article is part of a series of stories on Disability inclusion.

Women with disabilities in Afghanistan protest for their rights. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 2018 (IPS) – Children with disabilities are up to four times more likely to experience violence, with girls being the most at risk, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

“Children with disabilities are among the most marginalised groups in society. If society continues to see the disability before it sees the child, the risk of exclusion and discrimination remains,” Georgina Thompson, a media consultant for UNICEF, told IPS.

According to the…

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…