A Task Shifting/Task Sharing investment in Kano State in Nigeria is empowering community health workers and improving maternal and newborn outcomes KANO, Nigeria – It is antenatal day at Gwale Primary Health Care Centre (PHC) in the suburbs of Kano, the capital of the state by the same name and the second biggest city in […] Continue reading ->
The dramatic global health budget cutbacks in services for maternal and reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have produced 17 million unintended pregnancies, and more than 34,000 preventable maternal deaths in just the first year since cuts were made. That recent assessment by French and Washington DC-based analyses, was cited by Guyana’s UN Ambassador […] Continue reading ->
Human rights and legal experts have urged African governments not to support a draft charter being incubated by conservatives that will undermine the rights of women and girls. African women, girls and sexual minorities already face huge challenges to their health and safety from conflict, repressive laws and harmful cultural and religious practices. Now, one […] Continue reading ->
The United States and Russia were part of a group of eight countries that voted against the United Nations (UN) Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, which was adopted by 149 votes at the High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Tuesday afternoon. Israel, Burkina Faso, Burundi, North Korea, Niger and Senegal also voted against the declaration, while there were […] Continue reading ->
A return on investment of 16:1 should be irresistible. So why does midwifery keep losing the budget fight, and what would make funders and finance ministers finally move? When a young mother in Mtendere, Lusaka, began bleeding heavily hours after delivering her baby, her life was in grave danger. Three midwives assessed her immediately, recognised […] Continue reading ->
Every year, around 27 million women bleed excessively after giving birth, and almost 43,000 die – yet there are new ways for this to be detected and treated. This is according to a series on maternal health published in The Lancet on Friday by the United Nations Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training […] Continue reading ->
Ghana’s parliament invited a vociferously anti-vaccine Kenyan and a conservative Dutch activist campaigning to curtail the World Health Organization (WHO) to address visiting MPs on “health sovereignty” last week. Ghanaian President John Mahama – who is championing African “health sovereignty” via an initiative called the Accra Reset – was a keynote speaker at the WHO’s […] 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 ->
The Commonwealth’s new strategic framework accelerates the elimination of cervical cancer, a highly preventable disease that claims hundreds of thousands of lives yearly. However, shifting global funding and major prevention gaps threaten to derail progress, forcing states to double down on shared digital resources, regional cooperation, and community engagement. Inside the wood-panelled executive boardroom at […] Continue reading ->
In January, India’s Supreme Court has ruled that menstrual health is a fundamental right, directing states and schools to take measures to facilitate menstrual health and sanitation. The laws of the world’s most populous country are now in line with the United Nations (UN) stand on menstrual health taken in 2024, and one that is […] Continue reading ->