Before COVID-19 hit, Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries already displayed plenty of health inequalities rooted in the Social Determinants of Health (SDH), the conditions in the social environment – where people live, learn, work, and play – that affect health outcomes. Typically, this includes income, education, occupation, and social ...

When I come across a sentence like  – hold your breath – this one, “achieving systemic transformation under the banner of climate justice requires that we deconstruct power relations and gender norms as colonial social constructs from an intersectional and community-based perspective”, I tend to grab an extra cup of coffee. How shall I “wa...

World Sickle Cell Day is commemorated on the 19th of June – an important day to raise awareness on Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). This article aims to demonstrate how the new Global Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) compact  can be instrumental in raising awareness on, and tackling the disease. It underscores how to leverage the five specific time-bo...

Women are 70% of health workers across the world, lead and shoulder a significant proportion of the pandemic response, and play key roles in health systems all over the world.  Many of these women, particularly those in lower income countries work as volunteers, in low paid or underpaid roles and without any social protection. WHO’s Global Str...

‘Namaste’, “Kem Cho, Badha? Maja ma?” (Greetings! How are you all? Happy?)  Those were the exact opening words of the director-general of the WHO, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, as he was speaking at the “foundation stone laying” ceremony for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicines (GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujrat, India. On 19th April, Prime ...

“To banish imperfections is to destroy expression, to check exertion is to paralyze vitality.” Living in a world where we look down on one another for our flaws instead of celebrating our strengths is truly dangerous. Because the reality is we are all flawed humans. It’s our imperfections, big or small, that make us human. So, what then makes an...

It was a day of sunny skies, hot coffee, and silence. However, my mind could not remain silent while reading A Story of “Amal” (Hope).    In the article (2013), Amal is a woman from Lebanon abused by her husband.  Her story left me wondering how many “Amals” we have among us… Suddenly the silence was broken. My office was crossed by a ...

Global health is a numbers game. Metrics have become ever more central to tackle global health issues and to build the so-called evidence base. Performance, effectiveness, impact: in order to count on the global health agenda, you’d better be countable. Nothing new under the sun. French philosopher Michel Foucault is probably among the most re...

Vimala (fictitious name) loved her role as a gram(a) sevika ( i.e. a woman employed to advise and assist villagers in matters of community welfare and development – in Kerala (local language) known as ‘grama sevika’).   Whenever she had the opportunity to help poor villagers collect their welfare pensions, she felt a deep sense of satisfacti...