Political opposition to sexual and reproductive health services and LGBT rights is becoming well organised – and researchers argue that its targets are central to an autocratic reorganising of society, not simply ‘culture war’ casualties. It has become customary for conservative member states to object to even cursory references to sexual and reproductive health (SRH), […] Continue reading ->
Country controversies, secret terms, opaque procurement, and massive unspent Congressional funds have characterised the first year of the America First Global Health Strategy. “Services are weaker than they were a year ago, HIV testing is down, treatment of children living with HIV is down, and community-based prevention is gutted,” said Emily Bass, expert consultant for […] Continue reading ->
For nearly three hours on 29 July, the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard one sentence repeated over a hundred times. “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.” Dr Anthony Fauci, the 85-year-old retired director of the National […] Continue reading ->
What’s left to tackle in the PABS talks? As the clock ran out, and then was extended for another year, on negotiations over the Pandemic Agreement’s Annex on Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS), the diplomacy and the nitty-gritty of the issues faced were deeply linked This edition of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot of the Geneva […] Continue reading ->
Ghana’s Parliament passed one of the most extensive, repressive anti-LGBT laws in the world late Friday, introducing prison terms for people who simply identify as lesbian and gay – but human rights groups say there was no quorum when it did so. Only 32 of the 276 Members of Parliament were present when the Human […] Continue reading ->
WHO emergency funds are running low, and global health leaders are concerned about a systemic paralysis in pandemic preparedness. In high-level discussions in Geneva, experts explored the geopolitical rifts, pitting the Global South’s demand to treat pandemic tools as legally binding “public goods” against a European push for market-driven surge financing. As a severe Ebola […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission announced its long-awaited Global Health Resilience Initiative on Wednesday. While the policy roadmap aims to support partner countries’ transition toward health sovereignty amid historic aid cuts and shifting geopolitical realities, critics are concerned about its heavy reliance on private funding. As global health gains face a severe threat of reversal from stagnating […] Continue reading ->
As the campaign to elect a new World Health Organization Director-General officially opens, a timeline for the process has been published by outgoing DG Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for consideration by member states at the upcoming Executive Board in May meeting. While guidelines aim to promote a transparent and level playing field, structural loopholes remain. […] Continue reading ->
A dramatically shrinking World Health Organization (WHO) has seen a slight decline in gender parity amidst restructuring. Strict recruitment policies and targeted job cuts have actively boosted female representation within the organisation’s professional ranks. But deep regional disparities in gender representation remain unresolved, with men holding the overwhelming majority of staff posts in the African, […] Continue reading ->
A joint announcement by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) on microplastics made inaccurate claims about how many plastic particles exist in the brain, while providing an unclear regulatory plan to address this. But a study published in Nature Health found microplastics in nearly every one of its 191 […] Continue reading ->