The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO) is meeting this week in Geneva for the 69th time, with a thematic focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 agenda. Over 3500 delegates from WHO’s 194 member countries are there. In addition to a large proportion of the world’s ministers of hea...

Going through information on the previous editions of Women Deliver, I recall being awestruck by the list of speakers, number of female participants and the types of issues discussed; I must say the #WD2016 conference has lived up to my expectations. Women Deliver began in 2007 as a global conference to address maternal mortality. This fourth ...

Gulp, clears throat! I suppose I should be the last person to write on this, I’m probably still too young, starry-eyed and shy (yes we all have that shy gene and I don’t think it ever goes away!). I recall meeting several high-profiled people when I was much younger, well and recently, and let’s just say that I was more star-struck than an...

The Danish Prime Minister opened his plenary speech  for #WD2016 aka Women Deliver 2016 – for the less savvy ones amongst us – with an introduction to Denmark as one of the most just, equal and happiest countries in the world, of course not forgetting that it is also rated one of the best countries for women to live in! Not that I needed th...

This editorial addresses two of my current frustrations: the relentless addiction to profit-making and science’s dependence on it. There is nothing wrong in earning an income, but my sense of unease starts when profit-making becomes an end in itself. I have a hard time understanding our faith in the religion of brazen profit making which can h...

On Sunday 16th of April, the north western coast of Ecuador was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. While, the 16million or so people of this South American country are no strangers to earthquakes, this was one of the biggest to have hit the country in recent times. The quake, which according to the UN is “the region´s...

A  weblink related to a recent  UHC financing forum in Washington DC  (hosted by the World Bank) caught my attention a few weeks ago. The (PR) picture in the article featured health workers handling newborns placed head-to-head in what appears to be a routine setting. All seems peaceful and nice, but from a technical standpoint, the picture a...

Early last month, South Africa became a new entrant to the list of countries proposing use of the none-too-wisely-named ‘sin tax’ to deter consumption of demerit (socially undesirable or unhealthy) goods. The government recommended implementation of a drastic increase on sugar-sweetened beverages, as South Africans consume almost double the ...

A (by now, rather famous) quote from Margaret Chan supports the global branding of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In the quote, the WHO Director-General states: “I regard universal health coverage as the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer.” I argue in this short piece that this quote does not capture the very natu...