Health systems in Africa are under considerable strain: rapid demographic change, rising non-communicable diseases, and emerging and re-emerging threats such as COVID-19 and Ebola are increasing demands on limited health services. Africa, however, faces a challenging period in health financing to meet these increasing needs. Health spending in most countries remains far short of what is […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK CITY – World leaders issued a political declaration Monday warning that the world is nowhere close to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it set in 2015. The declaration, adopted at the first UN high-level political forum on the SDGs since 2019, comes at a time when progress on the goals has been […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK CITY – There has been little progress in expanding universal health service coverage (UHC) since the last UN High Level Meeting (HLM) meeting on the issue in 2019, and trends in financial protection are even worsening, with catastrophic out-of-pocket spending increasing when compared to 2015. The final draft of the political declaration for […] Continue reading ->
Thousands of people and hundreds of civil society organisations are expected to march in New York City this weekend to call on US President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to stop the expansion of fossil fuel projects in the country. The march is one of over 400 marches, rallies and protests worldwide coordinated […] Continue reading ->
Climate change increased temperatures for nearly every human being on the planet between June-August, 2023 On the eve of the G20 summit in Delhi, a group of independent climate scientists has reported that human-induced climate change increased temperatures for nearly every human being in the world for at least one day between June and […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) will host a summit on air pollution in Accra, Ghana in 2024, the organization announced on Thursday. The summit will be the second ever to address air pollution, which is responsible for millions of premature deaths each year, and the first to be held in Africa. The announcement was made […] Continue reading ->
The health, development and safety of children in 98% of African countries are severely threatened by the effects of climate change, according to a new report by UNICEF. The report, published ahead of the start of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on Monday, found that children in 48 of the 49 African countries for […] Continue reading ->
A draft political declaration on pandemics, due to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later this month, offers “little hope” that the UN process will make a difference in global pandemic preparedness, global health experts said on Friday. The document, made public on Thursday, is long on words but short on commitments. The […] Continue reading ->
International climate targets cannot be met without rapid and drastic cuts to global methane emissions, according to a series of reports published on Wednesday by the Global Climate and Health Alliance (GCHA). The reports found that reducing methane emissions by 45% by 2030 would avert nearly 0.3C degrees of global warming by 2045, a margin […] Continue reading ->
Global fossil fuel subsidies surged to a record $7 trillion in 2022 – $2 trillion more than in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said in its 2023 report on fuel subsidy trends. The increase comes despite the mounting damage being caused by climate change, and clear scientific evidence that phasing out subsidies would […] Continue reading ->