Here’s a short tale, well known in my country. Growing up, a child would request to accompany an elder to the nearest shops. The elder would say yes. Time to depart, the child would gleefully trail the elder to the door. At the door, the elder would tell the child to go back in the house and take his shoes. Upon return, with the shoes in its h...

 “Care is an anathema to capitalism. Its virtues are capitalism’s vices. Its employment-rich foundation for wellbeing is capitalism’s productivity crisis. To a mainstream economist, employment intensity translates directly into low or stagnating productivity growth. The very thing, in that view, that is holding us back from the economic gr...

If you think about the ecological footprint of the health sector, which is the single most important factor regarding greenhouse gas emissions, material extraction, waste generation, and water and land use? The answer is: pharmaceuticals and other chemical products. Therefore, when we started working with lawyers at the Bucerius Law School in Ha...

As we advocate for health equity in global health settings in different parts of the world, one can see some of the inequities in full display and even amplified in Geneva at the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA76), which I’m currently attending. From restricted access to civil society, to representation among delegates – in terms of youth enga...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term ‘supply chain disruption’ rose to considerable prominence. Many private sector and for-profit development partners regularly use it to explain their underwhelming performance in fulfilling key global health contracts. However, a closer examination of these ‘humanitarian warriors’ annual reports reveals ...

Last week WHO declared, in a twist of irony, the end of the  COVID-19 global health emergency on European Tourism Day (5 May).  As you might recall, the region was the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic for quite some time. Moreover, Europe accounts for approximatively 1 in 2 international tourists in the world. While thankfully the emergency st...

I come from a tribal area in the northern part of India, but I grew up in a town that was about a hundred kilometres away. Throughout my life, I had heard and read about the difficulties people face in accessing healthcare services in  my tribal region which increased during the winter season due to heavy snowfall, which often results in it bei...

A small fish swims up to an older fish and says: “I’m trying to find this thing they call “the ocean”.” The older fish says, “The ocean? That’s what you’re in right now.” “This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean!”  When looking for a catchy introduction, I remembered the previous dialogue fr...

As most of you will know, West Africa is no stranger to epidemics. In recent history, the subregion has seen several infectious disease outbreaks of epidemic proportions, with cholera, measles, and yellow fever among the most prevalent outbreaks. And in 2014, of course, there was the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra ...