The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first global research agenda to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that outlines 40 research priorities.

An estimated 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR in 2019. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is particularly pervasive, with an estimated 450 000 new cases of rifampicin- and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in 2021.

The research agenda was developed after a review of over 3,000 documents published over the past decade and is divided into prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, as well as cross-cutting issues. 

Prevention includes basic issues such as improved access to clean water and sanitation. Diagnosis identifies a long list of tests needed to fast-track the identification of drug resistance. Treatment and care focus on encouraging stewardship of antibiotics by pharmacists and health workers.

“To help preserve antimicrobials and save lives and livelihoods, this research agenda is a crucial tool for researchers and funders to prioritize research questions, and promptly and efficiently generate evidence that informs policy,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Assistant Director-General for AMR. 

“This first research agenda from WHO will provide the world’s AMR researchers and funders with the most important topics to focus on and give the world its best chance to combat AMR,” added Dr Silvia Bertagnolio, Head of the WHO AMR Division.

Marketing claims made by commercial formula milk companies (brand names have been changed).

As representatives of 130 countries meet in Geneva this week to discuss how to counteract the tactics of baby formula manufacturers, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged member states to update their laws to prevent the marketing of baby formula in the wake of increasing industry sophistication.  

The meeting is aimed at beefing up the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, adopted in 1981 as a means to encourage exclusive breastfeeding, which was being undermined by the aggressive promotion of baby formula.

Since the code was adopted, almost three-quarters of countries have enacted legislation that puts in place at least some of the code’s provisions. As a result, exclusive breastfeeding feeding has increased globally by 10%, reaching 48% of children under six months – the highest level since the 1980s, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is making an impact

“But little progress has been made in high-income countries where the code has not been made into effective legislation and, as a result, exclusive breastfeeding rates are stagnating,” Tedros told a media briefing on Wednesday.

“Manufacturers of breast milk substitutes are also using increasingly sophisticated marketing tactics, including targeted ads on pregnant mothers’ mobile phones, clandestine participation in online baby clips, or coaxing mothers to market formula to one another,” he added.

High-income countries have “the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding in children under six months”, according to Dr Francesco Branca, WHO Director of Nutrition.

Meanwhile, only 32 countries are fully compliant with the code and many others needed to update their legislation to address the “new forms of marketing”, including digital outreach and donations to professional societies, added Branca.

“Definitely WHO is recommending that member states… have much greater and stricter legislation because we have seen that that is associated with increased rates of breastfeeding,” added Branca, commending countries in South Asia and Africa for “producing legislation which is closest to the implementation of the code”. 

Behind closed doors

But two days of the three-day talks are taking place behind closed doors at WHO’s Geneva headquarters. Media access to the proceedings has been limited to the opening statements  – with no virtual press access granted even to that portion.

Asked why the forum was closed to the public, and only open to Geneva media, WHO said only: “The meeting is really geared towards countries, as we hope to provide an opportunity for member states to make plans on how they can improve the implementation of the code.” 

Rates of exclusive breastfeeding are 20% higher in countries that have legislation substantially aligned with the code, noted WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the start of the meeting.

Continuation of breastfeeding in the first two years of life is more than twice as high when the legislation is substantially aligned with the code. “Let’s put a stop to the commercialization of our children’s health. It’s time to end exploitative marketing,” said the WHO Director General. 

“Inadequate breastfeeding increases the risks of childhood obesity, sudden, unexplained unexplained infant death, leukaemia and other cancers,” Tedros told the media briefing. “WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for two years or beyond.”

A Nestle advertisement from 1911 undermines breastfeeding.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the code in 1981, when global awareness about the health impacts of infant formula reliance, particularly in developing countries with unsafe water, first emerged. While there has been “clear progress” in the 42 years since it was adopted, formula milk manufacturing companies have sharpened their marketing tools, using “exploitative” practices on new digital platforms to market milk formula, according to WHO. 

A report released in April 2022 revealed what WHO described as the “shocking” extent of such practices, used by the baby formula industry, estimated to earn some $55 billion a year. 

The report detailed how formula milk companies are paying social media platforms and influencers to access and influence pregnant women and new mothers using personalized social media content that is often not recognizable as advertising. 

Through tools like apps, virtual support groups or ‘baby clubs’, and with the support of paid social media influencers, formula milk companies offer women competitions, advice forums or services – buying and collecting their personal data to further hone down their promotions. 

The report summarizes findings of research that sampled and analyzed four million social media posts about infant feeding published between January and June 2021, reaching some  2.47 billion people.

Meanwhile, experts said last year said that infant formula companies have “pathologised” normal baby behaviour to promote their products, and there should be “an international, legal treaty” to prevent their marketing, and that political lobbying by milk formula companies to influence public policy should be sharply curtailed.

These comments were contained in a three-part series published in The Lancet, in which the authors said that formula milk companies “exploit parents’ emotions and manipulate scientific information to generate sales at the expense of the health and rights of families, women, and children”.

“The sale of commercial milk formula is a multi-billion-dollar industry which uses political lobbying alongside a sophisticated and highly effective marketing playbook to turn the care and concern of parents and caregivers into a business opportunity. It is time for this to end,” says series co-author, Professor Nigel Rollins from WHO’s Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.

Image Credits: WHO.

The climate crisis is creating a new generation of refugees.

There are more displaced people in the world today than at any other time in history. A record 110 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide as of May 2023. Last year, 19.1 million people fled their homes as conflicts, climate shocks and hunger swept across the world, the largest single year increase ever recorded. 

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine caused the largest forced movement of people since World War II – the conflict that spurred the ratification of the UN Refugee convention 70 years ago. 

Record droughts in the Horn of Africa, a renewed war in Sudan and the growing severity and frequency of natural disasters have only added to the growing list of causes for the ever-growing surge. 

“It’s quite an indictment on the state of our world,” said UN Refugee agency head Filippo Grandi. “Unfortunately, in today’s divided world, long-term solutions for people forced to flee remain pitifully scarce.”

The number of refugees has more than doubled in the past decade, rising to 35 million from 15 million in 2011. Seven in ten refugees flee across just a single border to neighboring countries in hopes of eventually returning home. More than half of refugees come from just three countries: Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan.

“The prevailing rhetoric is still that all the refugees go to rich countries,” said Grandi. “This is actually wrong. It’s quite the opposite.”

Around 76% of forcibly displaced people are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, while 70% of refugees are hosted in countries neighbouring their country of origin. 

Turkey is home to the most refugees in the world. It hosts 3.8 million people, the majority of whom are Syrians who fled the civil war. Iran is second, with 3.4 million refugees, mostly Afghans. Columbia, Germany and Pakistan round out of the top five. 

“These are not numbers on a page,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who served as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for a decade before taking over leadership of the UN. “These are individual women, children, and men making difficult journeys – often facing violence, exploitation, discrimination and abuse. Four in ten people forced to flee are children. They deserve a home, a childhood and a future just as much as anyone else.”

The week leading up to World Refugee Day, celebrated on June 20 every year, served as a stirring reminder of the dangers faced by people who leave their countries to find safety for themselves and their families.

Last Tuesday, on what would have been the dawn of World Refugee Day had it been a week later, the Greek coastguard was notified of a vessel carrying hundreds of migrants en route to Italy. Dozens of pleas for help from the dilapidated shipping trawler were recorded by humanitarian search-and-rescue groups over the ensuing hours. 

The ship sank mere meters from a coast guard vessel 18 hours after authorities were made aware of its existence. The wreck claimed the lives of up to 700 men, women and children on board. 

Survivors say as many as 100 children may have been in the hold of the ship when it sank. Yiva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, said the incident may be “the most tragic ever in the Mediterranean”. Greek officials continue to contest the chain of events that led to the disaster. 

The Mediterranean Sea, despite its proximity to the European Union, the world’s wealthiest economic bloc, is the deadliest route for refugees in the world. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded over 20,000 deaths on the route since 2014, and another 7,000 people reported missing along the route have never been found.

After years of innumerable tragic headlines reaching the notification screens of people around the world, observers worry the extent of their plight has become normalized. 

“I am struck by the alarming level of tolerance to serious human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that has developed across Europe,” said Dunja Mijatović, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. “Reports of human rights violations against refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are now so frequent that they hardly register in the public consciousness.” 

António Vitorino, who leads the International Organization for Migration that runs the Missing Migrants Project, echoed similar concerns: “I fear that these deaths have been normalized.”

Climate threatens to force unprecedented numbers of people to seek safer ground

If the world can limit warming to 1.5C, the number of people living outside the livable “climate niche” will be reduced by 80% compared to the current 2.7C trajectory.

Weather-related disasters triggered 32.6 million internal displacements in 2022, the highest number in a decade and 41% over the annual average of the last ten years. Unpredictable rainfall and intense droughts across Southeast Asia have already led to over eight million people moving to more hospitable climates in the Middle East, Europe and North America, according to the World Bank. 

Millions have already been made climate refugees by the current 1.2C in global temperatures. In Bangladesh, 10 million people have fled their homes as a result of flooding and drought. An estimated 2,000 people move to the capital, Dhaka, every day – 70% of them due to weather-related events. But as migrants move to Dhaka in search of safer ground, the city itself is sinking, threatening the livelihoods of its 168 million residents. 

And with the world on track for 2.7C of global heating, these numbers may be just a drop in the bucket by 2050. As the IPCC projects worse fires, longer droughts, and increased flooding, the World Bank estimates 143 million people could be climate migrants by 2050 – four times the record-setting number of refugees in the world today. And some scientific projections make the World Bank estimate look like a best-case scenario. 

If the world continues to warm at the current pace, two billion people will be driven out of the “climate niche” humans have thrived in for thousands of years. The extreme temperatures and weather patterns that result from the warming could lead up to one billion people to leave their homes in search of safer weather, a recent study in Nature Sustainability found. 

An earlier study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020, estimated that 19% of land currently inhabited by people could turn into uninhabitable hot zones by 2070, placing one in every three people in climates that will force them to leave.

The consequences of climate change place people living in conflict-affected and politically fragile regions in particular danger. An estimated 70% of refugees and 80% of internally displaced people today come from countries that are also highly vulnerable to climate change, while 40% of refugees worldwide are hosted in climate vulnerable countries. In 2021, nine in ten refugees who returned home returned to highly climate vulnerable countries. 

“Climate shocks are throwing fuel on the fire of persistent cycles of crisis and displacement,” the UN Refugee Agency told delegates ahead of the UN Climate Summit, COP27, in Egypt last year. “Loss and damage from the impacts of climate change is already a devastating reality for millions of people as climate-fueled crises, food and water insecurity and loss of habitable territory drive new displacement and make life harder for people already uprooted from their homes.”

The Ecological Threat Register, a project run by the Institute for Economics & Peace, estimates that by 2040, more than half of the world’s projected population – 5.4 billion people – will live in countries experiencing water stress. Meanwhile, 3.5 billion people may suffer from food insecurity by 2050, 1.5 billion more than today.

With the prospect of millions of climate refugees on the horizon, the world will need to adjust. Yet for now, the world is moving in the opposite direction. 

“We see pushbacks. We see tougher and tougher immigration or refugee admission rules. We see in many countries a criminalization of immigrants and refugees, blaming them for everything,” said Grandi. “It cannot be just about controlling your borders.

“Leadership is about convincing your public opinion that there are people that deserve international protection.”

Two-thirds of the world’s oceans are unregulated and subject to overfishing and pollution.

After almost 20 years of negotiations, the United Nations has adopted a legally binding treaty to protect the marine biodiversity of sea outside national borders known as the high seas, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans.

The High Seas Treaty was adopted by consensus at the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction on Monday. 

It will come into force once ratified by 60 of the 193 UN member states.

“The ocean is the lifeblood of our planet, and today, you have pumped new life and hope to give the ocean a fighting chance,” the UN Secretary-General António Guterres told delegates.

The treaty, an international legally binding instrument under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, aims to “ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, for the present and in the long term”.

However, after its adoption Venezuela’s delegate pointed out that his country is not a party to the convention, so is not bound by the treaty. Meanwhile, Russia also distanced itself from the consensus, claiming that it feared the agreement would be politicised.

The new agreement contains 75 articles to protect and ensure the responsible use of the marine environment including provisions based on the polluter-pays principle.

This is particularly important to contain toxic chemicals and plastic waste. More than 17 million tons of plastic entered the world’s oceans in 2021, and this is expected to double or triple each year by 2040, according to the latest Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) report.

The treaty intends to establish new marine protected areas, to conserve and sustainably manage vital habitats and species in the high seas and the international seabed area.

The treaty also considers the special circumstances facing small-island and landlocked developing nations.

The treaty also underlines the importance of capacity building, including collaboration among regional seas organisations and regional fisheries management organisations to regulate the high seas.

The treaty also offers guidance on tackling the adverse effects of climate change and ocean acidification, and maintains and restores ecosystem integrity, including carbon cycling services.

“We have a new tool,” UN General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi told the Intergovernmental Conference delegates on Monday. “This landmark achievement bears witness to your collective commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Together, you laid the foundation for a better stewardship of our seas, ensuring their survival for generations to come.

Image Credits: Julia Goralski/ Unsplash.

A child with HIV takes a paediatric dose of antiretroviral medication.

One of the most successful US aid programmes, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – which has saved 25 million lives in its 20 years of existence – is facing a right-wing backlash based on misinformation.

PEPFAR’s five-year budget is due for re-funding by the US Senate and Congress by 30 September, but there has been unprecedented right-wing mobilisation against it over the past few months by both US and African groups. 

Twenty million people living with HIV are currently on antiretroviral medication thanks to PEPFAR, which also channels the US contribution to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

PEPFAR’s key achievements in 2022

PEPFAR was started by Republican president George W Bush in 2003 and has enjoyed bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats.

But a group of US right-wing groups claimed in a recent letter sent to Senate and Congress leaders that PEPFAR grantees  “are using taxpayer funds to promote a radical sexual and reproductive health agenda”. Signatories include the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), Heritage Foundation and the Dr James Dobson Family Institute.

A similar letter was sent on 6 June to the same US Senate and Congress leaders by African politicians and religious leaders claiming that PEPFAR “is supporting so-called family planning and reproductive health principles and practices, including abortion, that violate our core beliefs concerning life, family, and religion”.

US Representative Chris Smith, who co-sponsored PEPFAR’s refinancing in 2018, has also joined its critics by recently claiming that the programme is being used to “promote abortion on demand”. 

Illegal for PEPFAR to fund abortion

However, it is illegal for PEPFAR to fund or support abortion, and abortion is illegal in most of the  African countries where it operates.

“PEPFAR has never, will not ever, use that platform in supporting abortion,” said Dr John Nkengasong, who heads PEPAR as the US Global AIDS Co-ordinator, as reported by Devex.

One of the PEPFAR grantees that have been singled out is DREAMS (Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe), which targets teenage girls in 16 African countries. 

Girls and young women are up to five times more likely to contract HIV than boys and men their age, and DREAMS offered HIV prevention services to 2.9 million adolescent girls and young women in 2022.

However, a C-FAM report claims that “in Malawi the program focused on young girls 12-14 years providing access to sexual and reproductive health services, which according to the Biden administration includes abortion”. 

Abortion is illegal in Malawi so this simply isn’t possible.

The group also singles out the Anova Health Institute, a respected South African organisation that works largely with government departments on HIV prevention, treatment and care and health systems strengthening.

It claims that Anova “promotes abortions to teens as young as 14” and had condemned ”laws enacted in US states that designate bathroom use based on biological sex”.

However, Anova CEO Dr Helen Struthers, told Health Policy Watch that her organisation “has always worked within the South African legal framework and within the terms and conditions of our grant agreements”.

“We have abided by the United States Government’s Various Codes of Federal Regulation and other restraints placed on the use of PEPFAR funds. Anova has never performed any abortions, nor has it actively promoted abortion as a method of family planning with PEPFAR or any other funds,” Struthers stressed, adding that Anova had supporting the South African government to put 400,000 more people on antiretroviral treatment in the past four years.

“These people are all playing with fire, and they’re playing with people’s lives, and there can only be one reason: political motivation to kill PEPFAR,” Mark Dybul, former US global AIDS coordinator, told Devex.

Monica Geingos, co-chair of the Global Council on Inequality.

Meanwhile, Namibian First Lady Monica Geingos, co-chair of the newly formed UNAIDS Global Council on Inequality, said that “PEPFAR has been an incredibly effective partner for Namibia, and has really contributed to some of our remarkable gains” against HIV. 

“Unfortunately, as the US moves into a political season, and as many countries move to political seasons, things like this tend to happen. And it’s a reminder again, for many countries to become more self-reliant when it comes to health financing,” Geingkos said in response to a Health Policy Watch question at a webinar on Tuesday organised by UNAIDS and the Financial Times.

However, Geingos added that misinformation “is not something that the Global Council can ignore” as it “can exacerbate and prolong pandemics when people don’t believe in science, when politicians behave and speak irresponsibly and when this starts to impact where money flows to.”

* Story updated to include Anova comment.

Image Credits: Paul Kamau/ DNDi.

refugees
A doctor providing essential health services to children in a refugee camp in northwest Syria during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirty countries signed a political declaration at an international meeting in Morocco last week calling for the health of refugees and migrants to be included in national health systems and universal health coverage. A total of 50 UN member and observer states attended the talks.

The Rabat Declaration, signed on Friday, is the first official outcome document on the health of refugees to emerge from a series of Global Consultations on the Health of Refugees and Migrants that began in Istanbul in March last year. 

“Universal health coverage is only truly universal if it includes refugees and migrants,” the declaration states. 

The World Health Organization (WHO), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UN Refugee Agency called the declaration “groundbreaking”.

“Member States today have pledged that no one will be left behind when addressing the health needs of those forcibly displaced,” said Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at UNHCR, in a joint press release. 

“Their commitment to not only include refugees, migrants and their hosting communities in national health policies and plans, but to also include them meaningfully in policy health discussions is a significant momentum towards universal health coverage and worthy of global support,” he said.

The declaration also calls for increased international efforts for “the protection of refugees, stateless persons, asylum-seekers and other forcibly displaced persons”, recognizes the “positive role and contributions of migrants and refugees for inclusive growth and sustainable development”, and emphasises the need for regional and national health strategies that “include measures to reach refugees and migrants … with the aim of leaving no one behind”. 

“Refugees and migrants face significant threats to health, and significant barriers to accessing the health services they need,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Protecting the health and dignity of refugees and migrants during their often-dangerous journeys, and in the countries hosting them, is a matter of human rights, and human decency.”

Two previous rounds of international meetings on “migrant health” — concluded in Madrid in 2010 and Colombo in 2017 — did not include “refugees” in their official scope. The Colombo statement, signed by 19 countries at the conclusion of the 2017 round of talks, makes no reference to refugees in its guiding principles. 

WHO spotlights refugee health challenges

People receiving food assistance at the Oruchinga refugee settlement in Uganda.

A WHO spokesperson described the declaration as the latest in a series of WHO and international actions to recognize refugees’ unique health challenges:

“The declaration comes at a crucial moment after the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in 2018, the adoption of the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants in 2019 and its extension until 2030 just adopted by the World Health Assembly in May this year, the International Migration Review Forum in 2022 and prior to the Global Refugee Forum in December 2023,” the spokesperson said.

“In the declaration Member States commit to stronger global coordination and collaboration for better health outcomes of refugees and migrants, as well as actions that improve the health of these populations, such as sustainable Universal Health Coverage (UHC) financing mechanisms or health system strengthening; the development of high-quality global research on the health of refugees and migrants; investments in data to develop a monitoring framework; the participation of refugees and migrants in health policy discussions; and cooperation and financial mechanisms to assist the efforts of host countries at the national and local levels.”

Lack of broader country support 

refugees

Countries hosting large numbers of refugees were among the leading signatories of the new statement. These include Turkey, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and Iran in the Middle East; Libya, Chad, Somalia, and Algeria and Ethiopia in Africa; Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico in Latin America; and India, the Philippines and Thailand in Asia.  

Notably, the USA, Italy, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Portugal also supported the declaration. Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden and other countries in Europe that play host to large numbers of refugees were not among the signatories. 

IOM and UNHCR could not be reached for further comment on the implications of the declaration or its political supporters, in time for publication.

In response to the relatively low number of signatories, WHO said that the increased attendance, which has more than doubled since the second consultation in 2017, reflects increased “interest in commitment to improving the health of refugees and migrants and addressing the root causes of poor health outcomes”. 

“This positive trend is very much aligned with the adoption of a resolution to extend the WHO Global Action Plan on Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants until 2030, which was put forward by almost 30 governmental co-sponsors,” WHO said. “With the resolution, Member States have seven more years to continue to address the health needs of refugees and migrants, integrate refugee and migrant health in global, regional, and national initiatives, and identify and share challenges, lessons learned, and best practices related to implementing the global action plan.”

WHO’s European Region is currently negotiating a new regional action plan on the health of refugees and migrants, with the participation of the countries of the region, the spokesperson added.

In a landmark WHO report in 2022, the agency noted that migrants and refugees face big hurdles in accessing health services in two-thirds of their host countries. 

The report called for more active integration of migrants and refugees into the national health system schemes of their host countries – saying that their inclusion is critical to meeting 2030 Universal Health Coverage goals. A United Nations High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, is scheduled for September. 

Algeria opposes registration of refugees in health system

Tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees have been stranded in the aftermath of the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara following Spain’s withdrawal in 1975.

During three days of negotiations over the statement in Rabat, Morocco last week (13-15 May), Algeria stirred up controversy when its delegation came out in opposition to a key section of the declaration, which notes the international legal obligation of host countries to register refugees in order for them to access national health systems. 

Algeria is home to an estimated 111,500 refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa and Syria. Around 90,000 of these are Sahrawi refugees who live in five camps near the Saharan desert town of Tindouf, which borders the disputed region of the Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania. The Sahrawi are considered by UNHCR to be the “most vulnerable” of the region’s refugees.

The Saharawi region is claimed by Morocco. It is recognized as an independent state known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by the Africa Union but not by the United Nations. 

While Algeria did not publicly provide a rationale for its opposition to registration, this is typically seen by many host countries as a step towards the granting of legal refugee asylum status, which they want to discourage.  

Even so, refugees and asylum seekers in Algiers are allowed free access to the national health system, with around 86% of such people in the capital being treated primarily by its public health system, according to UNHCR.

In the harsh deserts of Tindouf, however, Saharawi refugees rely almost entirely on humanitarian assistance. In 2022, UNHCR provided 70% of required medical equipment and supplies in addition to funding training programmes for doctors, nurses and midwives within the camp. The World Food Programme is also responsible for providing essential food supplies across the five camps.  

The UNHCR describes the predicament of Sahrawi refugees as “one of the most protracted refugee situations in the world”, with many Sahrawi having lived in Tindouf for over 45 years.  

Over 150,000 Sahrawi were displaced in a 16-year war with Morocco and Mauritania following Spain’s retreat from its colonial territories in the Western Sahara in 1975 – some of which was the Sahrawi homeland. 

Sahrawi claims are supported by a 1975 International Court of Justice ruling recognizing their claims to self-determination, and a ceasefire agreement negotiated by the UN in 1991 on the condition that a referendum on Sahrawi independence be held. However, the referendum has never been held and the conflict remains unresolved.

See also the WHO Global Health Matters series: How can we ensure that health is a reality for migrants and refugees

Image Credits: International Rescue Committee, Flickr – USAID, Leiv Meir Clancy, European Commission.

INB co-chairs Roland Driece and Precious Matsoso

At the end of this week’s negotiation on the pandemic accord, Roland Driece, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) charged with drafting a pandemic accord, told the final plenary on Friday that “it’s not easy” – a phrase that he repeated four times in the space of minutes.

To ease difficulties, the INB piloted a new approach involving informal sessions to “bridge gaps” on the sidelines of the formal drafting session, Driece said. 

Two informal sessions were held on one of the trickiest aspects of the negotiations: Article 9 (Chapter Two) of the current pandemic accord draft, dealing with the research and development (R&D) of pandemic products. Mexico and Norway facilitated the sessions, while experts were on hand to respond to technical questions.

Meanwhile, in the formal drafting committee, member states “exchanged views” on Articles 9 (R&D), 10 (liability risk management), 11 (technology transfer), 12 (access and benefit-sharing of pathogen), 13 (supply chain) and 14 (regulatory strengthening).

However, before the next set of negotiations from 17-21 July, the INB intends to host three inter-sessional meetings – on articles 9, 12, and 14.

Members support pilot informal sessions

The pilot informal sessions appeared to have the support of member states, with the African region, Latin America, the cross-cutting 20-country Group of Equity, and the European Union (EU) expressing appreciation in the final plenary.

Earlier this week, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides warned a meeting of European health ministers that there is a risk the negotiations “may be derailed by current dynamics”, according to Politico.

Kyriakides added that she was “quite concerned” as “important parts of the EU proposals are not reflected in this latest draft”.

However, Sweden, on behalf of the EU said it had been “a very, very useful week” with “very significant progress”.

Driece singled out a discussion on access, benefit sharing and equitable access to counter-measures for helping to “increase the understanding of each other’s perspective, objectives, and proposals and the rationale behind them”.

The EU also supported the informal sessions as a “significant positive development”, while  Colombia, for Latin America, said that these have “allowed us to make progress”.

“Although we have not been able to engage in textual negotiations this week, our discussions have allowed us to have a fuller understanding of one another’s proposals and perspectives on the articles taken up,” said India for the Equity Group.

Ethiopia at INB5

The African region, via Ethiopia, also welcomed both the informal meetings alongside formal negotiations and the proposed inter-sessional meetings to “enhance mutual understanding”.

However, for the sake of smaller delegates, Ethiopia appealed for hybrid meetings that were well-spaced.

Ethiopia also stressed Africa’s position that the accord needs “concrete obligations on equity and pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery”.

“It’s not that we have big news to share with you all but it’s the only news that we work very hard like I said to get where we want to be,” said Driece.

Meanwhile, co-chair Precious Matsoso encouraged INB members to meet informally whenever they could to exchange views and build friendship and trust.

At the start of the week, Matsoso used various dance analogies to encourage relations between member states. Driece concluded the meeting by saying that he and Matsoso would tango if the pandemic accord was read by April next year.

UniteHealth Social Media Awards 2023
UniteHealth Social Media Awards 2023

Eight social media influencers were selected earlier this week as winners of the UniteHealth Social Media Awards, showcasing individuals and organisations who used social media to strengthen collective understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and evidence-based responses.

The winners represent eight countries – nominees were recommended from more than 60 countries – and cover six categories and a “Young Leader” category that recognizes the contributions of social media users and influencers under 30.

UniteHealth Social Media Awards 2023
UniteHealth Social Media Awards 2023

Health Policy Watch was one of eight non-profit organizations engaged in public health and health-related media work that co-sponsored the awards alongside UniteHealth.

The winners were:

  • Pandemic Policy & Practice: Cinthia Reyes, Mexico
  • Staying Safe: Trisha Greenhalgh, United Kingdom
  • Understanding the Virus: Dr. Vinod Balasubramaniam, Malaysia
  • COVID-19 Care and Support: Benjamin Djoudalbaye, Chad
  • Vaccines: Hector L Frisbie, Mexico and Benjamin Djoudalbaye, Chad
  • Long COVID: Padma Priya DVL, India
  • Young Leader: Shiven Taneja, Canada

Watch the ceremony:


The awards aimed to say “thank you” to those who gave their time and expertise to create a positive influence on social media platforms, said Prof Jeffrey Lazarus, a health researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health and co-founder of the awards. Nominations for award candidates were solicited from around the world. Thousands of votes were cast for government officials, NGO workers, scientists, community activists, doctors, nurses and journalists.

Image Credits: Screenshot.

One of the 340 islands that make up Palau in the Western Pacific

Overburdened by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and threatened by climate change, health ministers of Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) met in Barbados over the past few days and adopted the  Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health. 

The declaration commits the SIDS to a number of actions including implementing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended “Best Buys”, a menu of policy options to prevent and control of NCDs and mental health. These include regulation and taxation of harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol and junk food.

The SIDS comprise 39 countries and 18 associate members of the UN situated in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South China Sea (AIS), and have a combined population of around 65 million.

A new WHO report shows that eight of the 15 countries with more than a 30% risk of premature death from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, or chronic respiratory disease are SIDS. The 10 countries with the highest obesity rates globally are all SIDS in the Pacific, where over 45% of adults live with obesity.

Cry for help

Small Island Developing States face unique problems

While the Bridgetown Declaration is a call to action, it is also a cry for help as it lays bare the problems facing these small nations – one percent of the world – that rely primarily on tourism and workers’ remittances for survival. 

Over half of the deaths in SIDS are premature and from NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, and mental health conditions, according to the declaration. 

Nauru, Cook Islands and Palau have the highest rates of obesity in the world, while childhood obesity in all SIDS is increasing exponentially. 

The highest prevalence of adult diabetes is also projected to be in SIDS, with prevalence in the Caribbean double the global average. Meanwhile, over 30% of adults have hypertension. 

In Guyana, premature mortality from cardiovascular disease is the highest in the region of the Americas. Rates of mental health conditions reach as high as 15% in the Caribbean and the Pacific. 

The SIDS attribute the drivers of these problems to “disproportionate commercial influence and trade-related challenges. Negative commercial influences are driving high rates of smoking, obesity and sedentary behaviour across these countries.”

The islands are a captive audience for these commercial forces. They’re reliant on imported food, which is often ultra-processed and high in sugar, salt and fat – and comes wrapped in plastic that pollutes the environment. 

With climate change negatively affecting local fishing and agriculture, this dependence is likely to increase.

The declaration also speaks of  “the disproportionate and repetitive impact of disasters, whose frequency and intensity are further exacerbated by climate change”. This causes economic losses and drives people away from the islands.

Funding to mitigate challenges

One of the reasons for the meeting, which was hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), its regional counterpart, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Barbados government, is to prepare for the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on universal health coverage in September.

The intention is to engage governments, international agencies and donors to assist SIDS to address their unique problems.

“Bold action for our climate, good health, and wellbeing relies on redressing and reorganising global financing to unlock billions in investment while making it less punishing for developing countries to pay their debts,” said Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, at a media briefing on Thursday. 

“Funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the most vulnerable countries is also key, with noncommunicable diseases and mental health accounted for.”

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, praised the SIDS for showing “remarkable resilience, despite their limited resources and geographical constraints”.

He pledged that WHO would work to mobilize financial resources to develop climate-resilient, environmentally sustainable healthcare facilities in the SIDS. WHO will also continue to advocate for “loss and damage” funding for climate change adaptation and mitigation investments in lower-income countries.

Image Credits: Rick Bajornas/ UN Photo.

Late-night screaming matches and days of delays dogged the adoption of the budget of the International Labour Organization (ILO) this week after some Arab and African member states objected to a clause related to LGBTQ rights.

The single offending clause committed the body to support those “affected by discrimination and exclusion, including on the grounds of race, sexual orientation and gender identity” and to “implementing measures conducive to promoting equality of opportunity and treatment”.

While the clause was retained in the budget that was finally passed this week at the body’s plenary, the compromise involved the insertion of a note that recorded the differences on some issues, according to AFP, which also reported on the late-night drama and yelling matches.

The 2024/25 budget and programme of work was finally overwhelmingly passed by 477 votes, with 11 against and seven abstentions. The hold-out ‘no’ votes included Bahrain, Belarus, Egypt, Gabon, Maldives, Niger and Oman. Pakistan and Morocco had led the initial objections, but Pakistan voted in favour of the compromise while Morocco abstained.

Speaking after the adoption of the budget, Sweden’s Thomas Janson on behalf of the European Union, pointed out that LGBTI reference had been in the ILO’s programme of work and budget since 2018/19.

“The EU and its member states to reiterate our commitment to equality and non-discrimination and to the entitlement of all persons to enjoy the full range of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” said Janson.

Canada’s Leslie Norton at the ILO

Canada’s Leslie Norton, speaking on behalf of 37 countries largely from Europe, Latin America and North America, said that the programme and budget document provides the framework for ILO staff to advance its work, and that “groups in the most vulnerable situations must be recognised and named”. 

“This includes those discriminated on the grounds of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” added Norton. 

“LGBTI persons disproportionately experience violence, harassment, discrimination, and exclusion throughout the employment cycle, from education to access to the labour market, conditions of work and security of employment,” she noted.

“The ILO is a UN organisation with social justice and rights at its centre, including the universally accepted fundamental principle on the Elimination of Discrimination in Employment, particularly for those who are historically or disproportionately discriminated against.”

The 37 countries would not accede to the removal of references to LGBTI people as this would be a “regression” that would “compromise on the key mandate of the ILO to promote the elimination of discrimination on any grounds, including on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity”, she added.

US representative Bathsheba Crocker noted that the ILO’s requested budget increase – the total ask is almost $885m – was “high in nominal terms and we appreciate the office’s efforts to identify additional budgetary efficiencies”.

Crocker also expressed the US government’s “unequivocal support for the ILO’s uncontested and universally agreed mandate to promote the elimination of discrimination in employment for all workers as a fundamental right and principle at work”, and that this mandate “is inclusive of any grounds for discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression and sex characteristics”.

The ILO’s Director-General, Gilbert Houngbo from Togo, the first African to hold this position, thanked delegates for passing the budget, noting that despite “intense discussions”, delegates “did come together”.

Ironically, the budget was passed shortly before the start of the ILO’s World of Work Summit that is themed “social justice for all”.

Heightening global tension over LGBTQ rights

Many UN agencies have experienced deadlocked over LGBTQ issues in recent years. For example, at last year´s World Health Assembly (WHA), an unexpected and protracted standoff over references to “sexuality”, “sexual orientation” and “men who have sex with men” in a technical guideline on HIV and hepatitis – pushed member states into an overnight session, delaying the close of the entire event.

Last year, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), supported by key North African countries, led the charge, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Nigeria vociferous in their condemnation of behaviours they deemed antithetical to their cultures. The standoff resulted in an unprecedented vote on the guide.