Winnie Byanyima* is the Executive Director of UNAIDS

Kansiime and her daughters arrive at the Mbarara Hospital. The three family members all live with HIV and go to the clinic regularly to collect their medication. “When I go to hospital, I am surrounded by other women who have come for treatment. We are there for the same reason,” Kansiime says. “This has helped me overcome stigma and given me strength.” Credit: UNICEF/UNI211907/Schermbrucker

GENEVA, Apr 2 2020 (IPS) – The multi-layered crisis of the Coronavirus epidemic has been a dramatic shock to everyone. But, to communities affected by HIV and AIDS, the crisis has not only brought a further shock to …

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 2020 (IPS) – Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society s structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. […] Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships.
 Frank Snowden 1

After contagion, the symptoms of the Ebola Virus become evident between two days and three weeks – vomiting, diarrhoea and rash as victims begin to bleed both internally and externally, an average of 50…

This is an opportunity for civil society to highlight the plight of migrant labourers that existed even before the pandemic.. Picture courtesy: Anand Sinha

RAJASMAND, RAJASTHAN, India, May 8 2020 (IPS) – The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown us something that most of us haven’t seen in our lifetimes: Large numbers of people unable to have two meals a day. 

The tragedy is that the government has enough and more foodgrains to feed people during th…

Credit: Bigstock

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 31 2020 (IPS) – Tobacco use kills more than people each year. Most adult smokers start smoking before the . This implies that if one can get through adolescence without , the likelihood of being a smoker in adulthood is greatly reduced.

Preventing young people from becoming addicted to tobacco and related products is therefore key to a smoke-free future.

With the advent of novel tobacco products and the tobacco industry falsely marketing them as less harmful than their combustible counter…

CANBERRA, Australia, Jun 12 2020 (IPS) – Prior to the onset of the coronavirus crisis South Asian women participated only sparingly in the labor market. Even though South Asia was and still has the potential to become one of the fastest growing regions in the world (post COVID19) female labor force participation rates were low at 23.6% compared to 80% for men (World Bank figures).

Raghbendra Jha

The principal reasons for low female labor participation rates are (i) relatively low literacy rates for women as compared to men1 although the gap between the two is falling and both rates are rising; (ii) gender norms that view household work as women’s work and work outside…

Jul 9 2020 – During the pandemic, forced return of migrants has become a major issue of concern for intergovernmental bodies and the global civil society engaged in migration issues. The United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM) has urged states to suspend forced returns during the pandemic, in order to protect the health of migrants and communities, and uphold the human rights of all migrants, regardless of status . UNNM has called for a halt to arbitrary expulsions and reiterated that their protection needs must be individually assessed; and that the rule of law and due process must be observed . It reminded the states that these obligations under international law can never be put on hold and are vital to any successful approach to combatting Covid-19 for the benefit of all .
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MEXICO CITY, Aug 14 2020 (IPS) – A group composed by women and men, called Nuevo Curso de Desarrollo (New Course for Development) based at the National University of Mexico recently published a document to propose a set of measures to change the current economic policy in Mexico. This proposal responds to a diagnosis of the current situation: at this point of the year, the serious social damage inflicted by the health and economic crisis can already be observed. As we know, in Mexico as in many other countries, there was a great economic disruption caused by COVID. Millions of people ceased to receive income from their work. However, the Mexican government has not carried out sufficient support measures to compensate for these losses. The result is easy to guess: many households have be…

Wang Yi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, addresses the virtual Security Council summit-level debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Global Governance post Covid-19”. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

AMSTERDAM/ROME, Oct 5 2020 (IPS) – Lockdowns, social distancing, face-masks and other restrictions on personal and social behaviour have helped slow the progress of the COVID-19 …

KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Nov 17 2020 (IPS) – The United Nations’ renamed (WSR 2020) argued that income inequality is rising in most developed countries, and some middle-income countries, including China, the world’s fastest growing economy in recent decades.

Inequality dimensions
While overall inter-country inequalities may have declined owing to the rapid growth of economies like China, India and East Asia, national inequalities have been growing for much of the world’s population, generating resentment.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

In 2005, when the focus was on halving poverty, thus ignoring inequality, the UN drew attention to . Secretary-General Kofi Annan wa…

Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait

NEW YORK, Dec 23 2020 – As Mohammed, a Palestine refugee with impaired vision who attends a specialized UNRWA programme for children with disabilities, told us during our mission to Lebanon a week ago: “I was worried. I was worried that I could not continue my education because the programme was going to be cut. Now I have hope that I can continue to study and make my dream come true.” As 2020 comes to a close and we reflect on Education Cannot Wait’s mission this past year, two things stand out: hope and action. Amidst multiple crises around the globe, exacerbated by the COVID-19 global pandemic, hope has been the fuel driving us all forward to take action to deliver to those left furthest behind. Indeed, while hope is life-…