Category: Development

Alerting that 4.5 million Haitians are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, WFP pointed to lower-than-expected humanitarian food assistance and continued fallout from the last August earthquake as key drivers. “Hunger levels are rising unabated as persistent political instability, growing inflation and recurrent disasters continue to conspire against the people of Haiti”, the agency advanced. Briefing the media in… Read More

Hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNITAID announced the groundbreaking development on Friday, which it is hoped will boost HIV prevention worldwide.  Developed by ViiV Healthcare and approved by the US health authority, the injection, whose active ingredient is cabotegravir,  offers two months of protection against HIV.   This news is a game changer. Unitaid is funding the implementation in… Read More

“After several weeks of declines, reported cases of COVID-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.  In the past week, the agency has seen an 8 per cent increase in detection of COVID-19 cases, with more than 11 million positive test results. “These increases are occurring despite reductions… Read More

To date, more than 10.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, “enough to protect the entire world population from severe symptoms, hospitalization and death,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. Despite this achievement, Ms. Bachelet insisted that the “grim reality” was that only around 13 per cent of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated, compared… Read More

In its annual report, released on Thursday, the INCB notes increasing evidence of a link between exposure to social media and drug use, which disproportionately affects young people, the main users of social media platforms, and an age group with relatively high rates of drug abuse. The report also calls on the private sector to moderate and self-regulate their platforms… Read More

The report, Impact of COVID-19 on the welfare of households with children, presents findings from data collected in 35 countries, and notes that households with three or more children were most likely to have come up short, with more than three-quarters experiencing a reduction in earnings. Going without food “Families cannot afford food or essential healthcare services. They cannot afford housing. It… Read More

The UN health agency’s assessment was made six weeks after the virus was declared a global health emergency when there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths outside China.  Two years later, more than 6 million people have died. “Although reported cases and deaths are declining globally, and several countries have lifted restrictions, the pandemic is far from over… Read More

Craig Lissner, the UN health agency’s acting director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, said on Wednesday’s launch, that “being able to obtain a safe abortion is a crucial part of healthcare”. “Nearly every death and injury that results from unsafe abortion is entirely preventable,” he insisted. “That’s why we recommend women and girls can access abortion and family… Read More

“The prospect of another cyclone was scary,” says Monica, who lives in Mbenje in Malawi’s Nsanje District. “We lived through the same experience with Cyclone Idai and then Cyclone Kenneth. We had to rebuild from scratch.” Word had spread through the village during the day that a powerful cyclone had hit neighbouring Mozambique, and on that Sunday evening two weeks… Read More

According to recent data, more than one billion people worldwide are obese, including 650 million adults, 340 million adolescents and 39 million children. With the numbers still increasing, WHO estimates that by 2025, approximately 167 million people will become less healthy because they are overweight or obese. Impacts of obesity Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat… Read More