This week Governance team members of the Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) met at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, together with a few “liaisons” from partner institutes and the focal person from the new EV secretariat ( APHRC), Francis. One might ask, why meet during a seemingly unending pandemic, a very worrying geop...

It is now nearly a year since Delhi and India went into a complete and total lockdown on the 24th of March 2020 for three months. This note is being posted nearly 6 months later than intended. I call this lockdown procrastination. August 2020 – An up-close and personal glimpse into the price of “development” On the afternoon of the ...

Loss of freedom of mobility makes me uncomfortable and claustrophobic. A few years ago, on my first day as a student in Europe, I took a walk at 0100hrs. Not because I had to be someplace. But because I could. Of course. No place, and no one is immune from sexual abuse. As the Harvey Weinstein saga of sexual harassment unfolded over a month ago ...

Women make up the bulk of the healthcare workforce but so few are in the top leadership roles. The role of women in leadership, or rather the lack of women in leadership positions and its impact on health policies, is indeed one which we must continue to question. What are the implications of having so few women at the top? How do we encourage t...

  It has been said before, and it appears to have been proven once again this week: social media can be used for the good, the bad and the ugly. In these times of increasing polarization and xenophobia, we’ve seen plenty of the latter (social media often seem to further increase polarization, rather than boost empathy for the downtrodden), but...

Toilets, agriculture, sexual and reproductive health, smart cities – a lot can be packed into two days as we found out as participants to the European Development Days (EDD) 2016 in Brussels – one of the major events in Europe on international cooperation and development. Some even call it the EU’s “Davos of development”.  “This eve...

As the full horror of the Orlando shootings unfolded, another story gained a slow and steady visibility in the media – the issue of blood donation. Not since Edward Cullen – the teenage heartthrob of the Twilight series – glided through the cafeteria doors of Forks High School, has the issue of blood received such attention, unfortunately ...

 I wasn’t quite sure whether to celebrate or mourn the inclusion of road safety as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), and more recently on the agenda of the recent 69th World Health Assembly in Geneva. I enjoy both driving and walking – though Delhi’s roads are getting increasingly hostile towards pedestrians – and it’s safe to say...

This time, last year I logged on to WHO’s website to catch the proceedings of the 68th  World Health Assembly (WHA) online; I never in my wildest dream expected to find myself at the WHA69 in person! And yet, here I am, attending the WHA as an IHP Correspondent, navigating a calendar packed with more events and discussions than one can humanl...

It’s an odd thing to crave cafeteria food. Yet, here it is. An unexpected craving for an interesting salmon ‘burger’ with, you guessed it, fries. A new study in The Lancet on ‘Dietary quality among men and women in 187 countries in 1990 and 2010: a systematic assessment’ doesn’t rank the Belgian diet, very highly. In fact, they fit t...

India has undertaken several significant health reforms in the last decade, many under the National Rural Health Mission. Many of these recent reforms were driven by the Millennium Development Goals, going beyond the targets outlined by the MDGs to address other aspects of the health system. Thirteen years after India’s last National Health Po...

(Given the content of this article, it is mostly written from a personal perspective (hence the ‘I’ in many paragraphs), especially when talking about personal experiences; yet both authors share the key messages – hence the “we’ perspective in some parts.)   We’re living in a world full of turmoil. It’s perhaps always been like this; as the...

Deep creases mark the face of the frail, old man who carries a 25 kilogram suitcase on his head. With two overfilled shopping bags balancing on either arm he walks fast; in a hurry to unload his burden onto the car of the passengers who have alighted from the train at New Delhi’s railway station. He is a coolie – carrying luggage at the stat...