The issue of work-life balance has recently been highlighted in a number of global health discussions. For example, earlier this year, the Wellcome Trust quite publicly explored whether to introduce a 4-day working week (but decided against this). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation introduced a 52-week paid parental leave (but then halved this ...

During the closing plenary of the 2nd International Symposium on Community Health Workers (CHW) held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from 22 to 24 November 2019, the following statement was made: “CHWs, Community Based Organisations (CBOs), leaders and other community actors, including families, can be an effective resource in fragile settings.” This ...

(Cross-posted from the BMC Blog where it was published first) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has stated that universal health coverage (UHC) is “a political choice”. But what does it mean to say that UHC is political? The politics of UHC Universal health coverage (UHC) is a key polic...

Call for 2 IHP internships (2020) The weekly International Health Policies (IHP) newsletter  is a flagship (knowledge management) activity of the IHP network, funded by DGD. The network aims to “empower committed groups of global health experts based in the South through innovative collaborative models allowing them to have greater control on ...

For reasons largely beyond my control, my life and career path took me back to one of the countries belonging to the Northern Triangle  in Central America, Honduras, and a new home in Mexico City. I am perfectly aware of where I live and work, in the most violent region of the world. As I landed in Tegucigalpa, recently, I realized I hadn’t si...

Almost five years of continuous conflict in “fragile” Yemen have left a devastating impact at all levels. State institutions are severely weakened, public services collapsed, living conditions became miserable and as media headlines tell you, my country now faces nationwide poverty, epidemics and a failing healthcare system. As is often the ...

Drug procurement is “big money”. Naturally information follows money. But information also enables negotiations. This is particularly vital if you are a health ministry official trying to negotiate prices of medicines based on their patent status while procuring drugs. Although it exists, information around if and where a specific drug has b...

The importance and efficacy of community-based healthcare workers is a familiar refrain for those working in public health in LMICs. In South Africa, the efficacy of such workers is continuously acknowledged and shown, but unfortunately also systematically undermined by a fragmented state approach to these workers. Such a fragmented approach mea...

Digital technologies are often embraced as the solution to global challenges within health and development, but rampant commercialisation and weak regulation challenge the ideal of digital public goods capable of reducing inequalities. Techno-optimism Many express confidence that digital technologies available through mobile phone, tablets and ...