Who will steer the World Health Organization through its next chapter? Explore Health Policy Watch’s daily series examining the platforms, records, and institutional hurdles facing each contender for WHO Director-General, continuing today with Budi Gunadi Sadikin. Access all candidate profiles on our dedicated election site. Indonesia’s nomination of its Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, for […] Continue reading ->
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 ->
Who will steer the World Health Organization through its next chapter? Explore Health Policy Watch’s daily series examining the platforms, records, and institutional hurdles facing each contender for WHO Director-General, continuing today with Dr Hanan H. Balkhy. Access all candidate profiles on our dedicated election site. Saudi Arabia’s nomination of Dr Hanan H. Balkhy, an […] Continue reading ->
Who will steer the World Health Organization through its next chapter? Explore Health Policy Watch’s daily series examining the platforms, records, and institutional hurdles facing each contender for WHO Director-General, starting today with Hanan Al Kuwari. Access all candidate profiles on our dedicated election site. The State of Qatar has nominated former minister of public […] Continue reading ->
On this International Day of Rural Women (15 October), countries need to commit to addressing the disparity between health services in urban and rural areas Despite significant improvements in maternal health globally over the last few decades, where a woman lives can still determine whether she gets the health care she needs. For millions of […] Continue reading ->
BERLIN – A new $100 million initiative to halve stillbirth rates across select countries over the next decade launched at the World Health Summit on Monday (12 October). Backed equally by the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap, a spin-off of the UK-based Wellcome Trust, the effort will test and deploy a package of diagnostic technologies […] Continue reading ->
Several significant pledges for global health – covering reproductive health, ‘transition’ and Ebola – were made on the fringes of last week’s United Nations General Assembly amid massive donor withdrawal from the sector. Reproductive health, which has suffered massive funding losses, got a $337.8 million boost from the United Kingdom, which announced its pledge at […] Continue reading ->
There have been documented decreases in female genital mutilation (FGM) rates in West Africa – declines not granted by governments, but fought for community by community by survivors, activists, and even former practitioners. In July 2025, that fight produced a landmark ruling: the ECOWAS Court of Justice found that Sierra Leone’s failure to protect girls […] Continue reading ->
HIV services, mental health and harm reduction programmes have been severely affected by the huge funding cuts to organisations providing services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people over the past 18 months. Perversely, organisations in countries with the most repressive conditions for LGBTIQ people have been worst affected by cuts, according […] Continue reading ->
The risk of infertility is 1.4 times higher in women who smoke, according to a systematic review of studies conducted between 2000 and 2026, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released on Tuesday. “This means that if the risk of infertility is 15% for women who do not smoke, then 21% will experience […] Continue reading ->