Cherie Blair meets with graduates from the Asian University for Women (AUW) at the Rohingya refugee camps at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. More than 40 women from the university are involved in humanitarian work in the area. Credit: Asian University for Women

London, Cox’s Bazaar, Johannesburg, Jun 17 2020 (IPS) – The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns falls heavily on the shoulders of women even in the global north. Women take the brunt of housework and caretaking duties, homes schooling, working from home and perhaps looking after elderly parents, says Cherie Blair.

“Imagine you’re a woman in the Rohingya refugee camp (near Cox’s Bazar, Bangl…

An eight-month-old boy with pneumonia is examined by a doctor at Amana Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

Jul 15 2020 (IPS) – In March, 10,000 NHS staff to UK prime minister Boris Johnson demanding better protection against COVID-19. Nurses and doctors wanted to treat patients without fear of infecting them and to minimise their own risk of falling ill. But they lacked the proper protective equipment.

The problem they described was rooted in changes made long before the arrival of the coronavirus. The NHS’s reduced capacity for dealing with the pandemic – including a lack of PPE – has been the result of years of to dict…

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the needs of the ageing population in various African countries were not adequately addressed. However, since the pandemic a recent survey has shown that the pandemic has further compounded the existing health challenges, further increasing neglect of older persons.Credit: Dolphin Emali/IPS

Nearly three quarters of respondents in a survey across 18 African countries have claimed that their countries’ COVID-19 responses are gravely lacking in addressing the ageing population.

The survey, conducted by the Stakeholder Group on Ageing (SGA) Africa, found that factors such as inadequate social protection, health care infrastr…

Mbaye Mbeguere is Senior Wash Manager (Urban) at WaterAid*

Maria 5, and Tendo, 4, have learnt the habit of regularly washing their hands whenever they arrive back home from playing with their friends, Kamwokya II Ward, Central Division, Kampala City, Uganda. April 2020. Credit: WaterAid/ James Kiyimba

DAKAR, Senegal, Oct 14 2020 (IPS) – For those who live in slums and informal settlements, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront their greatest vulnerabilities. But they are fighting back; organising, and coming up with creative ways to protect their communities.

Regular handwashing with soap and water is a first line of defence in protecting from deadly diseas…

Mothers and their children gather at a community nutrition centre in the little village of Rantolava, Madagascar, to learn more about a healthy diet. Credit: Alain Rakotondravony/IPS

NAPLES, Italy, Nov 25 2020 (IPS) – The risks factors contributing to the dramatic rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in recent decades have been known for a long time but the Covid-19 pandemic has brutally exposed our collective failure to deal with them.

Reporting on the findings of the latest , The Lancet warns of a “perfect storm” created by the interaction of the highly infectious Covid-19 virus with the continued rise in chronic illness and associated risk…

LETHBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 5 2021 (IPS) – Most people around the world were glad to see the back of 2020: From the devastating bushfires in Australia to the plagues of locusts through East Africa stretching across Arabia to Pakistan, extreme weather, melting ice sheets at the poles, and Covid-19 that still engulfs the globe.

Trevor Page

But 2021 threatens to be even worse than 2020: The economic impact of lockdowns, inward-looking, wall-building governments with self-interest trumping internationally agreed values. And then to quote David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme: “We could be facing multiple famines of Biblical proportions” and “We’re o…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 2021 (IPS) – Vaccine developers’ refusal to share publicly funded vaccine research findings is stalling broader, affordable vaccinations which would more rapidly contain COVID-19 contagion. The pandemic had infected at least 109 million people worldwide, causing over 2.4 million deaths as of mid-February.

Anis Chowdhury

Avoidable delays in preventive vaccination are imposing terrible burdens on the world economy and human welfare, with economic disruption demanding more relief and recovery measures. They have cost globally, with developed countries contracting .

Avoidable vaccination delays
National capacities to cope…

District Manager, HRLS Program, conducts a client workshop in the presence of the Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Sakhipur Upazila, Tangail. Cedit: BRAC

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 16 2021 (IPS) – The 410 Legal Aid Centers that I manage in Bangladesh for BRAC’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Services received approximately 35,900 requests for assistance in 2020. Almost all of them involve gender-based violence against women and girls.

In Bangladesh, gender-based violence comes in many forms: physical abuse; husbands throwing wives out of the home in domestic disputes; husbands demanding that their wives get more dowry money from their families, and child marriage, am…

Across the world, several key mutant strains have emerged thanks to ongoing virus replication in humans.

Apr 28 2021 (IPS) – With new COVID cases a day and hospitals and crematoria facing collapse, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called the situation in India “”.

India’s has blamed the people for not following COVID-safe public health directives, but recent data shows mask use has only , from a high of 71% in August 2020 to a low of 61% by the end of February.

B.1.617, or what has been called th…

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 8 2021 (IPS) – With the pandemic setting back past, modest and uneven progress, huge disparities in containing COVID-19 and financing government efforts are widening the North-South gap and other inequalities once again.

Developing country pandemic
Developing countries are struggling to cope with their generally feeble health systems. These had been weakened by funding cuts and privatisation policies prescribed by both Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs): the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 has become a “”.

Anis Chowdhury

Developing countries – especially lower middle-income…