For decades access to healthcare wasn’t a major political issue in India and rarely featured in election campaigns. This was perhaps surprising in the world’s biggest democracy, given how healthcare coverage and financing has become so politicised in other major countries. Since Independence in 1947 there have been frequent calls to implemen...

“The best medicine is peace. There is no health without peace, and there is no peace without health.” These words by Dr. Tedros, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), echoed in my mind during the annual World Health Summit (WHS) in Berlin in 2024. As he spoke about WHO’s humanitarian efforts in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, and ...

Fifteen years ago, Pakistan experienced devastating floods that wreaked havoc across the nation, particularly in the Southern part of Punjab, the most populous province. The floods presented a severe challenge from which the country has not fully recovered yet. They also offered an unexpected opportunity, however. During the flood response, the ...

“…We render special tribute to that brave Palestinian woman, guardian of sustenance and life, keeper of our people’s perennial flame” The Palestinian independence declaration, 1988 Women and girls in Palestine have undergone systematic discrimination, violence and denial of their sexual and reproductive health and rights for decades. In thi...

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic many countries lack sufficient funds to attain the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3). Therefore, it is high time to revisit the financing goal for a solidarity-based international contribution for health set in 2001. A new calculation is needed. The COVID-19 pandemic not only triggered an ...

Summary of #HSR2024 Nagasaki interactive debate Is it ethical for health policy and systems researchers to use X, formerly Twitter? As we began planning our session several months before the 8th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research  (18-22 Nov) in Nagasaki, Japan, we wondered whether this topic was too niche. Since November, however, orga...

Indonesia has been making efforts to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for HIV testing, treatment, and viral load suppression throughout its territory. The national HIV elimination programme has been implemented in all 38 provinces of the country, including 13000 islands that face unique geographical, cultural, and socioeconomic challenges. By...

We are pleased to announce the IHP call for correspondents 2025. Each year, the  International Health Policies (IHP) network issues a call for correspondents to contribute to the IHP newsletter. The weekly IHP newsletter/digest is a flagship knowledge management activity of the IHP network, funded by the Belgian Government (DGD), providing a tru...

Cancer survival rates have improved dramatically over the past few decades, but this success story has uncovered another critical healthcare challenge: the cardiovascular complications of cancer treatments. Now, cancer survivors are increasingly dying from cardiovascular problems, either related to cancer therapies or due to the increasingly kno...