Many experts would argue that trauma is not just a one-time incident; it is a lifelong burden, affecting physical, psychosocial and emotional aspects of health. I have been interested in the subject of gender-based violence since childhood. As a child, I remember accompanying my mother to the domestic violence shelter where she volunteered on weekday […]
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Fee-for-service – a bold measure by the Afghan health ministry
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has recently announced a User Fee Regulation under which user fees will be levied for services in secondary and tertiary public health facilities. The details of how much will be charged, for what services, and when the regulation will actually come into effect are yet to be known. What […]
Tales of a small town surgeon in India: the case for global health investment on essential surgery
Dr. A works as a surgeon in a small town of India. Like any other small town doctor he has settled for a practice here because of affinity and close proximity to his home. Building up from the scratch, Dr. A has slowly set-up an infrastructure that provides the best possible quality and affordable healthcare […]
Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar: Five tasks for the new WHO DG
Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar set out five tasks for the newly elected DG of the WHO […]
Is India’s national health policy geared towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?
The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in 2015 marked a shift in the global development agenda from the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era. SDGs are particularly important for the health sector, since they reaffirm the premise of the Alma Ata declaration that health cannot exist in isolation. SDG’s intrinsically link health with actions […]
Naomi Hossain: The right to food is common sense in Bangladesh
Horrifying new reports of famine on a vast scale in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria are emerging, signalling the lack of a real right to food among tens of millions of people. Climate change and conflict are leading to recurrent food crises. These unfolding episodes resemble the story of the last famine in Bangladesh, […]
Priscilla Claeys: Ensuring the right to food for rural working people
On 18 January 2017, the issue of the human rights of agricultural workers with no land of their own and other people working in rural areas was placed on the agenda of the European Council Working Party on Human Rights (COHOM) for the first time. As a researcher studying how the human rights regime is […]
R N Karuga: “Building a resilient and responsive health system needs strong community support”
“Forget about these people in the national office,” said Maria (not her real name). “They are not in touch with reality!” Maria is a district health manager in Kenya. This was her response when I asked how closely she works with the national Ministry of Health in delivering community health services. In 2013, the governance […]
What can we learn from the European Union’s first right to food law?
By Tomaso Ferrando and Roberto Sensi. In this second article on the #RightToFood, part of a BMJ Global Health series, we discuss our experience of the conception and enactment of a right to food law in Lombardia, Italy. The “Recognition, Protection and Promotion of the Right to Food,” was approved by the Lombardia Regional Council in November 2015. […]
Jose Luis Vivero-Pol and Tomaso Ferrando: Let’s talk about the right to food
Legal recognition of the right to food and nutrition can create the grounds for effective and systemic solutions for hunger and malnutrition. Recently, the media was abuzz with news of plans by the Scottish Equalities Secretary to legislate the right to food within Scottish law. This would be a step towards tackling food poverty in […]