LUSAKA, Zambia — A new African civil society network to address pandemics and climate crises was introduced publicly on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA). The Resilience Action Network Africa (RANA) has been established by over 30 African organizations that are part of the global Pandemic Action Network […] Continue reading ->
LUSAKA, Zambia – Ensuring that Africa can manufacture its own vaccines will represent “the second independence of Africa”, Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said at the start of the Conference for Public Health in Africa 2023 (CPHIA) on Monday. “Many African countries got their […] Continue reading ->
On her first visit back to Geneva since leaving her post as WHO Director-General in 2017, Dr Margaret Chan urged public health students to recognize “the power of collaboration” and to “use their voice” to hold policymakers accountable for the changes that the promises that they make. “When I was in WHO, there were a […] Continue reading ->
Unusual outbreaks of respiratory illness and pneumonia in Chinese children have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to ask the country for detailed information. Children’s hospitals in Beijing and Liaoning Province, some 800km apart, are “overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classes were on the verge of suspension”, according to local Chinese media, as […] Continue reading ->
Almost all countries (91%) have included health considerations in their latest climate-mitigation plans – called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – but those that have already felt the effects of extreme weather events appear more likely to have more detailed plans. This is according to an analysis of countries’ 2022 NDCs, the main policy instrument to […] Continue reading ->
Health Policy Watch recently reported that some European countries at the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement negotiations maintain that intellectual property (IP) negotiations belong at the World Trade Organization (WTO) rather than the WHO. If they mean to say that new WTO laws cannot be established at the WHO, they have a point. But […] Continue reading ->
In anticipation of coming climate crises, developing countries should put in place “effective mechanisms in their domestic laws” that allow them to use the TRIPS flexibilities, asserted Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday. TRIPS flexibility refers to space allowed in the WTO’s Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) […] Continue reading ->
Tobacco industry interference in governments’ tobacco control policies has increased in 43 out of 90 countries analysed over the past two years. This is according to the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023 released on Tuesday by tobacco watchdog STOP, and the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC). “No country has been […] Continue reading ->
A new Health Technology Access Pool (H-TAP), which aims to broaden the scope of IP and patent-sharing with low- and middle-income countries and a new African Union co-sponsored ‘manufacturing support platform’ were among the initiatives announced this week at the Second World Local Production forum in The Hague. The global forum, the second ever to […] Continue reading ->
An effective pandemic agreement will need to include “accountability mechanisms” to ensure that countries implement the terms – and these will need to be independently monitored, according to new research published in BMJ. “Accountability mechanisms are used through a variety of methods across global treaties and governance mechanisms to varying degrees of effectiveness,” argue the […] Continue reading ->