Category: Development

In closing comments to the WHO’s annual week-long high-level assembly, Tedros said that a potential international treaty will be discussed in a special session of WHO members in November. Although COVID cases and deaths are declining globally, Tedros insisted that the “way out” was through “tailored and consistent” public health measures in combination with equitable vaccination. Vaccination call The WHO… Read More

Speaking during his latest briefing from Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pushed for more developers to support the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), the voluntary platform for sharing scientific knowledge, data and intellectual property.   “We’re holding the door open for pharmaceutical companies that have become household names, although too few households have benefited from the life-saving tools they have developed”,… Read More

Participating in the Global Solutions Summit 2021, the UN chief stressed the need to defeat the virus through doubling the number of doses produced and ensuring their fair distribution among countries.  We are in an unprecedented crisis that requires unprecedented action. Collaboration between countries, communities, public & private sectors is key. By working together, we can vaccinate the world, end… Read More

“This is indeed much more than a health crisis. It’s a social crisis and an economic crisis, with dramatic long-term consequences for livelihoods, businesses, and for economies”, he said to a virtual roundtable event – part of the UN’s global campaign, #OnlyTogether – hosted jointly with the IKEA Foundation and Purpose – the social mobilisation organization which partners with the Department… Read More

Water Under Fire Volume 3, highlights that children’s access to water has been threatened in nearly every conflict-related emergency where UNICEF is responding. The report focuses on nine countries where violence and conflict are prevalent, and the impact the attacks have on children. Some 48 million people are estimated to need safe water and sanitation services in the follocountries (Central… Read More

In a video message to the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of UN agency WHO, Mr. Guterres warned against the dangers of “a two-speed global response”, a concern he has frequently expressed.  #COVID19 cannot be seen in isolation from fundamental problems with our health systems: inequality, underfunding, complacency, neglect. With the right primary health care systems, we will recover… Read More

Stressing that no one is safe until everyone is safe, the UN chief told the G20 Global Health Summit in Rome “it is time for decisive action.”  Mr Guterres repeated his call for the G20 to establish a Task Force “able to deal with the pharmaceutical companies and other key stakeholders”, which would address equitable vaccine distribution through the COVAX… Read More

“The pandemic is a long way from over, and it will not be over anywhere until it’s over everywhere”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists once more, at the regular press briefing in Geneva.  Still under threat  Tedros pointed to “dramatic increases” in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, in places where the coronavirus had previously… Read More

Henrietta Fore, the agency’s Executive Director, issued the statement from New York as G7 leaders gear up for their summit next month in the United Kingdom, and as vaccine producer India continues to confront the rapid surge. Heed the warning UNICEF is a partner in COVAX, the global vaccine equity mechanism, which is set to deliver its 65 millionth dose this… Read More

Speaking during WHO’s bi-weekly media briefing, agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated his warning against “vaccine nationalism”, as  low-income nations currently receive a paltry 0.3 per cent of supply.  Trickle down vaccination is not an effective strategy for fighting a deadly respiratory virus. #COVID19 has already cost more than 3.3 million lives and we’re on track for the second year… Read More