Historically, limited access to medicines was viewed as a problem primarily affecting healthcare systems in the Global South.  However, in recent years this issue has also emerged in the Global North, thus transforming access to medicines into a global concern extending beyond low-resource settings. Moreover, access to medicines is nowadays addr...

India is the third largest producer of e-waste, and approximately 90% of it gets processed in the unorganized sector. A report by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) from 2007 highlighted that the Muslim community is overwhelmingly concentrated in the unorganized sector and engaged in self-employed activitie...

On March 8, 2025, people worldwide will celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD), a global event that honors women’s achievements and raises awareness of the ongoing fight for gender equality. This year’s theme, #AccelerateAction, underscores the urgent need to break down barriers hindering women and girls from reaching their full potential...

While August is recognized as National Immunization Awareness Month in countries such as the US and Canada, February 2025 has already made its mark in this respect with no less than three high-level meetings focused on African vaccine manufacturing. Recently two of these took place in Cairo, Egypt. The first one, on February 4, led to the signin...

The global conversation around longevity is gaining momentum, driven by increasing life expectancy and growing research on healthy aging. For the first time in human history, there are more people aged 65 and older than children under five. And as you might recall,  the UN declared 2021–30 as the Decade of Healthy Ageing with an aim to improve...

When the baby comes, amid contractions and labor-related anxiety, few would think of calling a phone number to assess whether they should head to the maternity ward (or not). In Portugal, that is currently the reality for many pregnant women. Indeed, this is the focus of a pilot currently trialed in Lisbon, Portugal. In this pilot, pregnant wome...

The United States is the main contributor to several international organizations working on health in Africa, not to mention its bilateral programs (eg PEPFAR). The Trump Administration’s recent decision to suspend support for these organizations thus represents a significant shock in health financing in Africa when the region already faces un...

The recent Health Systems Research (HSR) 2024 Symposium in Nagasaki,Japan, brought together some of the brightest minds in global health totackle the most pressing challenges of our time. Among the manyhighlights was the recognition of winners from the Health Systems Global(HSG) Thematic Working Group on Action on Accountability andAnti-corrupti...

In December 2024,  the International Research Network on Quality of Care for Chronic Conditions  held its first meeting in Antwerp. The focus was the growing burden of chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and access to good quality care. While globally NCD attention is increasing alongside high-level political commitments, it’s fair to sa...