Vaccine access negotiations are at critical juncture. While many countries support the intellectual property rights waiver, including the European parliament the European Union does not. Credit: PAHO/Karen González

Melbourne, Australia , Aug 30 2021 (IPS) – A committee that has spent almost a year negotiating the terms of a temporary intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 medicines will reconvene in September after pausing for the European Summer.

As new variants spread rapidly around the world, the deadlock in the Committee has potentially further delayed access to vaccines and other medicines for billions of people in low- and middle-income countries.

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To fight economic inequality, female dependency on relationships and gender-based violence, female education is critical. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

Nov 30 2021 (IPS) – Despite the advances that have been made against HIV, the world has 37 million people living with HIV. And 680,000 people died from AIDS-related causes in . While the prevention of mother to child transmission, and provision of treatment as prevention, are , there are still . Over 1.5 m…

Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, has served as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination since 2001. He is part of Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Initiative, which has organized the “Don’t forget leprosy” campaign.

Jan 28 2022 – Sasakawa Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Initiative is collaborating with 32 organizations from 13 countries to promote the message “Don’t forget leprosy” in the run-up to World Leprosy Day on January 30. The international campaign includes awareness-raising events and outreach to governments and is being publicized via newspapers, television, radio, and social media.

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Sasakawa…

A water point near a water tank providing clean water to school children in Demnat Khadeer district of Taiz governorate. Credit: Fayad Al-Derwish/Oxfam – 2022

IBB Governorate, Yemen, Mar 22 2022 (IPS) – As Yemen enters its 8th year of an escalating conflict, 21.7 million of my fellow Yemenis are forced to rely on humanitarian assistance to survive. The conflict has left a trail of devastation in its wake – the country is in economic freefall, and families face intensified violence, hunger, and disease.

As we also mark another World Water Day on March 22, within Women’s History Month, it is a time to reflect on the immense water and sanitation crisis that cont…

Reki Jimu (51) has lived with HIV for nearly two decades. Here he shows a container of antiretroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS support group members at Chitungwiza government hospital outside Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.

CHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe, Jul 29 2022 (IPS) – In 2001, when Reki Jimu was 30 years old, his wife died aged 27.

The now 51-year-old Jimu said the coupl…

Africa’s laboratories need to step up testing to aid in fighting Anti-Microbial Resistance. This photo is a 3D computer-generated image of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, the pathogen responsible for causing the disease tuberculosis (TB). Credit: CDC/Unsplash

ACCRA, Nov 3 2022 (IPS) – African countries must find a way of fighting Anti-Microbial Resistance in the healthcare system to avoid unn…

Cooperative members in southern Lebanon make a rare, traditional bread called Mallet El Smid to be sold at the MENNA shop in Beirut. Women are central to meeting the SDGs, say parliamentarians. Credit: UN Women/Joe Saade

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 23 2023 (IPS) – The post-COVID-19 period has been a crucial one for members of parliament who have their work cut out to ensure that issues that arose during the pandemic are addressed, especially concerning t…

Dr. Nicoline de Haan is Director of the

A cell phone gives rural women access to financial services, training, networks, and, importantly, information and knowledge. Credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan (CCAFS)

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 6 2023 (IPS) – While 100 million people worldwide are using the AI chatbot ChatGPT to get ahead on homework and try at Google, in developing countries lack the services of a simple cell phone.

The world may be witnessing a quantum leap in the digital revolution, but cell phones and mobile internet would give these women enough of a foothold to access unprecedented opportunities to improve their incomes, nutrition and h…

A child has her teeth examined remotely. The Daktari Smart technology means children in rural Kenya are linked to specialist care in big centres. Credit: Daktari Smart

Nairobi, Aug 8 2022 (IPS) – New telemedicine technology, Daktari Smart, aims to mitigate the gap between child patients and medical specialists in rural Kenya.

Officially launched in November 2021, the system was built to help sick children have easy access to medical specialists minus the cost of being physically present (remote/digital ac…

In Africa only 60% of the estimated TB cases have been diagnosed. All the other infections are hidden by poverty—and so the disease continues to spread. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 8 2022 (IPS) – The news in many parts of the world is that tuberculosis (TB) is reclaiming the title of the world’s most deadly infection, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to kill an estimated around the world. But this is not news to African countries, which are home to globally who die from TB, even though they have less than one fifth of the world’s population.

And on our continent, the real burden might be worse: only 60% of the estimated cases have b…