Stark gender pay and power gaps remain a fact of life in leading global health organisations, according to a new Global Health 50/50 report on gender-equality in nearly 200 workplaces, including United Nations and national development agencies as well as non-profit organisations, research institutions and private sector firms. Image Credits: Global Health 50/50. Continue reading ->
Calling it a “historic moment,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Gheyebresus today announced wide-ranging reforms in the organization’s structure – claiming they would prove to be the most significant ones in WHO’s 71-year history. Continue reading ->
The African content is one step closer to its first medicine and health super-regulator. The treaty to establish an African Medicine Agency (AMA), meant to govern medical product regulation for the entire continent, was endorsed by the African Union Heads of State and Government on 11 February, according to a press release following the 32nd AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Continue reading ->
Secure and reliable supply chains for life-saving medicines are essential features of the global health landscape. They ensure that quality approved drugs are manufactured and available in the quantities needed, without interruption. For the fight against malaria, securing supply chains for quality, life-saving antimalarials involves the collective effort of a range of organisations working to mitigate the risk of any shortage of these drugs. A recent success in this area has been the quality approval of a second supplier of injectable artesunate, the drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat severe malaria. Continue reading ->
Global health expenditure is rising worldwide, and the pace is most rapid in low- and middle-income countries where growth in all forms of spending (public, private and donor aid) is now averaging 6% annually as compared to 4% in high-income countries, according to a World Health Organization report released today. Continue reading ->
A new report released today and authored by a range of environment and health groups pulls together research that "exposes distinct toxic risks plastic poses to human health at every stage of the plastic lifecycle, from extraction of fossil fuels, to consumer use, to disposal and beyond." Continue reading ->
Italian Health Minister Giulia Grillo has proposed that sweeping reforms be considered by the World Health Organization and its member states to increase global transparency of drug prices -- which may be unaffordable to most people in the developing world and increasingly costly for patients and health systems in high-income countries. Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization today announced the membership of its advisory committee that will assist in the development of global standards for the governance and oversight of human genome editing. Continue reading ->
Universal health coverage, access to medicines, and noncommunicable diseases are priorities for Switzerland in global health policy. Amb. Nora Kronig Romero is the head of the International Affairs Division and Vice Director General of the Federal Office of Public Health, as well as Swiss Ambassador for Global Health. She sat down with Health Policy Watch while in Geneva last week for the meeting of the World Health Organization Executive Board, which Switzerland attended as an observer to the governing board comprised of 34 WHO member states. Continue reading ->
With a united voice that World Health Organization Board members agreed last week on a draft resolution for the preparation of a United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on universal health coverage in the fall, following intensive closed consultations. The United States, however, dissociated itself from language it thought gave a permissive view of abortion. Continue reading ->