Health & Well Being

Photo: John Bob Ranck, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International. Credit: Naimul Haq | IDN-INPS

Why Eye Care is Important – for Bangladesh and Other Countries

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA (IDN) – John Bob Ranck, also known as Bob, Chief Executive Officer and President at Orbis International, recently visited Bangladesh on a special mission. He travelled to some of the hospitals where Orbis as a partner has been supporting Bangladesh’s efforts in addressing avoidable blindness.

Bob, a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General, came to Bangladesh a few weeks after the memorable visit of the teaching hospital or better known as the Flying Eye Hospital’s (FEH) training programme in Bangladesh.

: Naimul Haq; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 16 March 2018

Photo: (L to R): Urs Wiesmann, Co-Chair of SDSN Switzerland; Katrin Muff, Conference Facilitator; Bertrand Piccard, Solar Impulse Foundation; Jacques Dubochet, University of Lausanne; Océane Dayer, Co-Chair of SDSN Switzerland; Michael Bergöö, Acting Managing Director of SDSN Switzerland. Credit: Peter Lüthi, Biovision.

Switzerland Joins Sustainable Development Solutions Network

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERN (IDN) – The global Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has launched its 25th network, SDSN Switzerland, co-hosted by the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern and BIOVISION Foundation, foundation for ecological development, with a view to shaping multi-stakeholder dialogue, fostering sustainable development solutions, and advising decision-makers on the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Climate Agreement.

SDSN Switzerland was officially launched on February 15 with a conference under the banner 'Where Society, Science and Politics Create Solutions.' The network claims to have 19 members from key institutions around Switzerland who are committed to implementing SDGs at the local level.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 26 February 2018

UNESCAP, Islamic Development Bank Sign Landmark Agreement

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – One of the world’s largest multilateral development banks, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), has launched 'Engage', a new digital platform which will promote technological and scientific solutions to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

IsDB President Dr. Bandar Hajjar announced on February 21 the launch of the new platform at an event hosted at Bloomberg's European Headquarters in London, together with UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Dr. Hayat Sindi, Chief Scientific Advisor to IsDB, and a group of business, innovation and development experts.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 25 February 2018

Image: The Birth Control Necklace consists of 30 drop-shaped beads (average length of a woman's monthly cycle), whereby each bead represents one day in a woman's monthly menstrual cycle. Credit: Aktion Regen

Ensuring Access to Sexual and Reproductive Rights – A Global Challenge

By Julia Zimmerman*

This is the fifth in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Of the numerous and significant challenges currently facing women and girls globally, access to sexual and reproductive rights is high on the list. Experts in the field of women’s sexual and reproductive health are trying to assure access and to spread knowledge about harmful practices.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 31 January 2018

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed addresses the Fourth Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-Based Organizations in International Affairs with the focus "Perspectives on Migration: displacement and marginalization, inclusion and justice" on 22 January 2018. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Faith-based Organizations Asked to Support Refugees, Migrants

By Amina J. Mohammed

Amina J. Mohammed is the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. Following are extensive excerpts from her remarks to the Fourth Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs with the focus: "Perspectives on Migration: Displacement and Marginalization, Inclusion and Justice" in New York on 22 January 2018.* - The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Not since the Second World War have so many people fled their homes to seek a place of greater safety. Some 66 million people – half of them children – have fled armed conflicts, persecution, poverty, climate change and natural disasters and are now refugees or displaced within their own countries.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 24 January 2018

Photo: Dr Poonchai Chitanuntavitaya, Chief Medical Officer of Social Health Enterprise, supervising his trainees while giving massages to visitors to the school for marginalised children, supported by a foundation set up by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, to empower the students to break into the medical field through an unconventional career path that is providing a multi-faceted approach to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Thai Doctor Creating Multi-Faceted Approach to Sustainable Development

By Kalinga Seneviratne

CHANTABURI, Thailand (IDN) – A passionate, socially conscious doctor in this rural farming community in the north-east of Thailand is working with a school for marginalised children, supported by a foundation set up by Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the second daughter of late King Bhumibol who died in October 2016.

The school aims at empowering the students to break into the medical field through an unconventional career path that is providing a multi-faceted approach to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 19 January 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the global Universal Health Coverage Forum on December 14, in Tokyo, Japan. UN Photo/Curtis Christophersensik

Global Forum Underlines Need for Universal Health Coverage

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | TOKYO (IDN) – Nearly half of the world's population of 7.6 billion lacks access to essential health services at present and for almost 100 million people health expenses are high enough to push them into extreme poverty.

Against this perturbing backdrop, revealed by a recent report, a global Forum in Tokyo has underlined the need to extend by 2023 the health services coverage to 1 billion additional people and halve to 50 million the number of people being pushed into extreme poverty by health expenses.

The year 2023 is the midpoint towards 2030, the target date for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says the 'Tokyo Declaration on Universal Health Coverage' emerging from the global Universal Health Coverage Forum 2017 from December 12-15.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 16 December 2017

Photo: Less child marriage, fewer teen pregnancies, and more years spent in school would boost Uganda’s overall earnings. Credit: World Bank/Rachel Mabala.

World Bank Explains Uganda Benefits of Ending Child Marriage

By Ronald Joshua

NAIROBI (IDN) – With a new report, the World Bank is striving to put an end to child marriages in Uganda deploying a carrot-and-stick approach. Subsequently, the report titled 'Accelerating Uganda’s Development: Ending Child Marriage, Educating Girls' argues that ending child marriage could generate $3 billion per year for the East African country by 2030.

On the other hand, the perpetuation of child marriage would lead to lower educational attainment for girls and their children, higher population growth, substantial health risks, higher intimate partner violence, and lower earnings for women, as well as higher poverty.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 December 2017

Photo credit: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS Asked to Change Criteria Discriminating Poor Countries

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – As this year's World AIDS Day campaign – My Health, My Right – kicks into high gear, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has called on The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to end the use of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as part of the Fund's grant eligibility criteria, and thus stop discriminating poor countries.

The Los Angeles based AHF is the largest nonprofit HIV organization that provides HIV care to more than 833,000 patients in 39 countries globally, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean and the United States.

: J C Suresh; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 26 November 2017

10 to 12 million young people join the African labour force each year, yet the continent creates only 3.7 million jobs annually. Credit: Adapted from “Promulgation,” courtesy of flickr user ActionPixs (Maruko), Kenya.

The Challenge of Making Africa's 830 Million Young People 'Effective Citizens'

By John Dramani Mahama and Siddharth Chatterjee

John Dramani Mahama is the former President of the Republic of Ghana. (Follow him on twitter.) Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya. (Follow him on twitter.)

ACCCRA | NAIROBI (IDN-INPS) - In July 2017, Spanish charity workers rescued 167 migrants arriving from Africa aboard a small boat.

2016 was the deadliest for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, with at least 3800 deaths recorded. Most know the dangers they face on the route, yet still choose the possibility of death in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels over the hopelessness of life in areas they reside.