Last week, after more than a month of thinly and less thinly veiled threats, President Trump announced the U.S. would “terminate” its relationship with the WHO. As if he was playing in his own Terminator movie, a really bad sequel at that. It is not immediately clear whether the president can fully withdraw U.S. funding from WHO without an a...

version 6, 1 June 2020 You find the pdfs ( in English and in French) of this update here: Covid-19-in-DRC-and-sSA-observations-reflections-WVD-ITM-v6Download Covid-19-in-DRC-and-sSA-observations-reflections-WVD-ITM-v6-FRDownload INTRODUCTION: I am staff member of ITM-Antwerp, now based in Kinshasa during the corona crisis (rather by coincidence...

As efforts to respond and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic are ongoing globally, the strained healthcare services for the already conflict-traumatised populations in Bangladesh also need attention. The plight of over 600,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar—hosted in two registered camps (Kutupalong and Nayapara) and other areas—is inten...

Against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic, “Test, test, test” has been one of the key messages of the World Health Organization (WHO), reiterated over and over again. In almost every country, there is a push to test more, regardless of government capacity. It’s not surprising that many people feel angry and frustrated over the weak he...

As of May 15, 2020, The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq has confirmed 397 COVID-19 cases and five deaths. While this number might seem low, the outbreak has serious political ramifications for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The outbreak triggered a reactionary response among authorities in KRI. Recognising that decades of auster...

Spending “May Day” by myself at home this year, seemed very strange. It was the first time in a very long time, that I did not attend some sort of protest or event of resistance. But I do not think there has ever been a time in my life when concerns of workers’ rights have been more pronounced than they are in India today. Like most of the...

(cross-posted from Ghent Centre for Global Studies where it was published first: https://www.globalstudies.ugent.be/the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-the-irrelevance-of-the-sdgs/2/ ) According to Remco van de Pas, SDG3 on health and wellbeing has been irrelevant to address global challenges in this area. The futility of this SDG and limits of the W...

You can download the full note “Questions & Reflections on SARS-CoV-2 & Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa” (work-in-progress, version 4) here, both in English and French: Corona-in-sSA-questions-and-reflections-v4Download Corona-in-sSA-questions-and-reflections-v4-FRDownload Based in Kinshasa since a number of weeks, supporting the ‘Riposte coron...

During the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, European nations have struggled to provide health information to immigrant and minority populations. Using Norway as a case example and taking the social and economic rights framework as the point of departure, this blog highlights six elements for a grounded and inclusive approach to health inf...