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COVID-19 Has Stalled UN’s Goals to Reduce Global Hunger, Poverty and Climate Change
Crucial global goals to reduce hunger and poverty and curb climate change have gone backwards or stalled, the United Nations Secretary-General warns in a new report, as the Covid-19 outbreak moves from being a health crisis to becoming the “worst human and economic crisis of our lifetimes”. The number of people suffering hunger has increased, climate change is occurring faster than predicted, and inequality is increasing within and among countries, António Guterres said in his Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals or SDG 2020 report.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Environment, Finance, Health Care
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WHO Foundation to Broaden Funding Base for Global Health Investment
The WHO Foundation, which is legally separate from the UN health agency, will facilitate contributions from the public, individual major donors and corporate partners. It will make grants that support WHO's efforts to address pressing global health challenges, which include extending universal health coverage to one billion people.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
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The Blind Spot in Africa’s COVID-19 Response: Western Public Health Tactics Won’t Work – This Local Solution Might
The COVID-19 pandemic is primed to spread in Africa, and with just one doctor per 5,000 people, a major outbreak would overwhelm the continent’s health care systems. But as Anatole Manzi at Partners In Health points out, tactics like social distancing and hand-washing are not feasible in crowded slums and areas without clean water. He proposes a home-grown solution: training young people as community health workers.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
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3 Ways COVID-19 Could Actually Spark a Better Future for Africa
A lack of essential healthcare supplies has triggered a debate about the necessary industrialization of Africa.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Fighting a Pandemic in the Dark: How SolarAid is Helping Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Respond to COVID-19
As COVID-19 starts to spread through sub-Saharan Africa, John Keane and Sofia Ollvid at SolarAid point out that an estimated 600 million people on the continent live without access to electricity at home, and a staggering 75% of health facilities have unreliable power. They explore what solar providers are doing to help African countries respond to the pandemic.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy, Health Care
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Viewpoint: Now More Than Ever
The report analyzes the impact on extreme poverty of global economic contractions at three levels. In the best-case scenario, a 5% contraction, the researchers anticipate that 87 million people would fall into extreme poverty – half of them in South Asia where Upaya works.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Chickens Are an Overlooked Risk to Child Health: Here’s Why We Have to Get Poultry Promotion Right
Bill Gates once wrote, “It’s pretty clear to me that just about anyone who’s living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens.” But despite the critical nutrition and income poultry can provide, Chris Prottas at the Water Trust raises a key concern: Chickens pose a significant threat to children’s health. He explores why the development community needs a better approach to poultry promotion.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, WASH