Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation dashboard. This interactive dashboard/map provides the latest global numbers and numbers by country of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis. Credit: WHO
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 15 2020 (IPS) – President Donald Trump’s threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as ‘reckless and deadly”—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.
The US president, who has dismissed WHO as “China-centric”, has also been accused of playing politics with human lives—while he, in turn, blames the agency for mishan…
WAGENINGEN, Netherlands / ROME, May 5 2020 (IPS) – Globalization has been a driver for increased prosperity world-wide, but it has been in reverse in the last years due to the growth of populism in the USA and Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic may well provide further momentum to increasingly national-interest oriented policies in the west.
Nevertheless, a common response to COVID-19 is needed, where rich countries support developing countries in alleviating the impacts on the poor…
Zigunchor in Senegal’s southern Casamence region has the highest literacy rate in the country but here gender-based violence such as such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is still practiced. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
HYDERABAD, India, Jul 7 2020 (IPS) – Growing up in Senegal’s southern Casamence region — a conflict zone — Fatou Ndiaye, now 43, often heard gunfire and watched fearfully as she saw people flee their villages. But what she dreaded more than …
The COVID-19 response must address mental health alongside containment of the pandemic itself. Credit: Unsplash /Melanie Wasser.
Aug 5 2020 (IPS) – To fully realise the mental health crisis that India faces in relation to COVID-19, one has to begin with recognising the very serious situation that existed even before the pandemic.
The government’s reported that about 10 percent of adults meet diagnostic criteria for a mental health condition (ranging from mood and anxiety disorders to severe mental illness). The estimated that n…
A suicide survivor shares her story of how an online community helped her overcome anxiety and depression. Credit: Unsplash / Dan M
NEW YORK, Sep 28 2020 (IPS) – Romana Hoque had it all, a comfortable life, a happy family. Despite this, the 43-year-old second-generation immigrant from Indonesia living in the United States was depressed enough to contemplate suicide.
Hoque, in an exclusive interview with Inter Press Service (IPS), said despite her comfortable life, not being able to conceive resulted in her feeling so depressed that she tried to take her own life. She shared her story during September – set aside as a month for creating awareness of suicide prevention.…
Kriti Sharma is a senior disability rights researcher and Shantha Rau Barriga is the disability rights director at Human Rights Watch.
Approximately 30 patients stay at Edwuma Wo Woho Herbal Centre, many with mental health conditions. At least half are shackled. Credit: Robin Hammond/Witness Change for Human Rights Watch.
Dec 16 2020 (IPS) – Long before the Covid-19 pandemic grounded much of the world, lockdown, confinement, violence, and isolation was the daily reality for hu…
A man and a woman in front of the Beirut Port, Lebanon, following the blast. Courtesy: UN Women Arab States/Dar Al Mussawir
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 2021 (IPS) – Lebanon must “shield and preserve” the skills, knowledge, and experience of its people in order to move forward with its development, according to Christophe Abi-Nassif, the Lebanon programme director for the Middle East Institute (MEI).
“Shielding and preserving whatever is left of Lebanon s human capital should be the main policy-making concern at the moment,” Abi-N…
The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.
UN Women China Qinghai programme beneficiaries. Credit: UN Women
BEIJING, Mar 6 2021 (IPS) – Today is International Women’s Day (IWD), and the theme for this year’s celebration is Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world. We recognize the tremendous contribution and leadership demonstrated by women and girls around the world in shaping our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and a more sustainable future.
A global review of the progress achieved towards commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women 25 years ago …
A health worker prepares to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to her colleague at a hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.In a video message on May 24 to the World Health Assembly , the decision-making body of UN agency , UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned against the dangers of “”, a concern he has frequently expressed. “Sadly, unless we act now, we face a situation in which rich countries vaccinate the majority of their people and open their economies, while the virus continues to cause deep suffering by circling and mutating in the poorest countries,” he said. Credit: UNICEF/Ismail Taxta
NEW JERSEY, USA, May 28 2021 (IPS) – Despite claims by the industry and…
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jul 6 2021 (IPS) – As rich countries have delayed contagion containment, including mass vaccination, in developing countries, much weaker fiscal efforts in the South have worsened the growing world pandemic .
Lessons from first wave
Despite limited fiscal resources and modest external support, government efforts also need to address unsustainability, inequality and other problems due to extant economic, social and environmental arrangements.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Early relief and recovery measures assumed that the pandemic would be short-lived and reversible. Hence, such measures were rarely sustained, let alone expanded in developing coun…