Global health has moved from an area of mutual cooperation to one dominated by “high politics” and division, observed Ilona Kickbusch at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) last Friday (2 October). Leading the closing panel, the founder of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, highlighted how recent voting at the […] Continue reading ->
The Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response was not approved by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly, and is likely to be put to a vote at a later stage on the UN calendar. Objections by the United States and a few other states appeared to block a consensus agreement on the […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK – Although chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) are the third leading cause of death globally, there remains a ‘mismatch’ between impact and action, said a group of global health leaders and experts on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly. “There is a mismatch between the disease [impact] from CRD and the action against […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – The European Union said Tuesday it is ready to make a deal on a global plastics treaty but will not accept an agreement “at any cost,” leaving the door open to rejecting a weak outcome as negotiators enter the final 72 hours of talks with core provisions still deadlocked. “The EU is here […] Continue reading ->
Over 130 United Nations member states convened in New York City Sunday and Monday for a long-anticipated Summit of the Future that aimed to press the “reset button” on stalled global development goals and polarized geopolitical debate. The event, held just ahead of the annual debate in the U.N. General Assembly, kicked off with the […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, explicitly excluded the world’s five largest emitters of greenhouse gasses – China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan – from his Climate Ambition Summit, held Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The United Kingdom, another major polluter, was notably absent from the summit, amid reports […] 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 ->
World leaders, representatives of international development and humanitarian organizations, and UN delegations gathered in Geneva on Monday to rally financial support for Pakistan’s recovery from the devastating floods that hammered the country last year. Pakistan has appealed for $16.3 billion to assist it to rebuild the country, and almost half this amount had been pledged […] Continue reading ->
In 2020, UNICEF estimated that “a stillbirth occurs every 16 seconds somewhere in the world.” A new study has linked air pollution to nearly half of them. The study of 137 countries is the first global analysis to assess the number of fetal deaths, putting into numbers the already documented link between fine particulate matter […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations General Assembly voted to hold a summit of heads of state and other world leaders next year to find fair, long-lasting solutions for the global inequities and inadequate responses that the COVID-19 pandemic has all too painfully highlighted. Delegates to the 193-nation assembly overwhelmingly approved the resolution in a consensus vote on […] Continue reading ->