The global commitment to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 include providing high-quality promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative health services to all communities. However, a recent joint global report by the World Health Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the World Bank Group, found that quality of care, particularly in…
Sub-Saharan Africa: Child deaths on the rise amidst slowing preventive progress –UN report
A baby born in sub-Saharan Africa or in Southern Asia was nine times more likely to die in the first month than a baby born in a high-income country. Yet progress to saving newborns has not been slower than for other children under five years of age since 1990. In 2017, half of all deaths…
UN Biodiversity Convention, Future Earth collaborate for global conservation goals
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Future Earth today agreed to strengthen their collaboration around a number of key areas. The memorandum of understanding, signed at at the twenty-first meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, being held 11 to 14 December in Montreal, Canada, is…
New biodiversity chief to UN Secretary-General wants biodiversity mainstreamed
By Erick Odhiambo Achieving global biodiversity targets will be a strong contribution to realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, said Dr. Cristiana Paşca Palmer, newly appointed Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, in a meeting held last Friday. In her first meeting with the Secretary-General, Paşca…
Education Above All, Gavi join forces to deliver progress on Sustainable Development Goals
Education Above All Foundation (EAA) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have today announced a new partnership to improve children’s health through community outreach and advocacy for immunisation in countries in Africa and Asia. “Education plays a crucial role in raising awareness of health challenges and shaping the attitudes and behaviours that can make a difference,…
Maternal Health: New Lancet Series challenges African governments to do more
Although Africa recorded reduced rates of deaths in pregnancy and childbirth by 45 per cent between 1990 when the MDGs were enacted and 2015 when they ended, there is however still much to do across Sub Saharan Africa to improve the health and survival of mothers – and their babies, a new Series published by the Lancet this week reveals.