Introducing Hope Over Fate: the Story of Sir Fazle Hasan Abed and BRAC
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC and “one of the unsung heroes of modern times,” according to Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times, authorized his own biography before dying of brain cancer in 2019. Author Scott MacMillan wrote Hope Over Fate based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Abed and his friends, family and co-workers. Credit: courtesy of BRACBy Scott MacMillanRedding Conn, USA, Aug 1 2022 (IPS) About seven years ago, I started working on a project with Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, the founder of BRAC. It was originally supposed to be a memoir: the story of Abed, the mild-mannered accountant who would ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - August 1, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Scott MacMillan Tags: Asia-Pacific Economy & Trade Education Global Headlines Health Migration & Refugees Trade & Investment Women & Economy IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news

Zimbabwe ’s Unsung Living HIV/AIDS Hero Spreads Message of Hope
Reki Jimu (51) has lived with HIV for nearly two decades. Here he shows a container of antiretroviral drugs to HIV/AIDS support group members at Chitungwiza government hospital outside Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS.By Jeffrey MoyoCHITUNGWIZA, Zimbabwe, Jul 29 2022 (IPS) In 2001, when Reki Jimu was 30 years old, his wife died aged 27. The now 51-year-old Jimu said the couple’s two sons died prematurely. Both were underweight and frail, although the couple had been previously blessed with a baby girl, Faith Jimu, who is now a 29-year-old mother of three. Jimu was born in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 29, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Jeffrey Moyo Tags: Africa Editors' Choice Featured Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Zimbabwe Source Type: news

Not a World for Young People
It’s nice getting old, being young is far too horrible                                              Hjalmar SöderberghBy Jan LundiusSTOCKHOLM, Jul 28 2022 (IPS) Many of us assume that an identification with a certain gender, race, nation or even age makes us particularly knowledgeable. When it comes to age, it is in most cultures of the world assumed that age and experience favour wisdom. I am not entir...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 28, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Jan Lundius Tags: Education Environment Featured Global Headlines Health Inequality Labour Migration & Refugees Population TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news

Rising Sea Levels, Drought, Hurricanes and Deforestation Threaten Latin America and the Caribbean
Coastal view from the Kalinago Territory in Dominica. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPSBy Alison KentishUNITED NATIONS, Jul 26 2022 (IPS) The highest deforestation rates since 2009. The third most active hurricane season on record. Extreme rainfall, floods, and landslides displaced tens of thousands of people. Rising sea levels. Glaciers in Peru lost more than half their size. Add the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to the mix, and 2021 was a challenging year for Latin America and the Caribbean. That’s according to the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 202...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 26, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Alison Kentish Tags: Biodiversity Climate Action Climate Change COVID-19 Editors' Choice Environment Featured Headlines Latin America & the Caribbean Sustainable Development Goals TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news

An Integrated Regional Response for the Sahel Crisis
Benoit Thierry, is Sahel Office Director of International Fund for Agriculture Development, DakarBy Benoit ThierryDAKAR, Senegal, Jul 25 2022 (IPS) The current Ukraine-Russia conflict is dominating the global media to the point of overshadowing longer protracted crisis that no longer make headlines, but are still rife. Such is the case with the on-going Sahel crisis, one of the world’s most neglected ones, where acute poverty, the dramatic effects of climate change and rising armed conflicts have become the norm for more than a decade. A situation further exacerbated by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Benoit Thierry...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 25, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Benoit Thierry Tags: Africa Aid Armed Conflicts Climate Action Climate Change Combating Desertification and Drought COVID-19 Development & Aid Food and Agriculture Headlines Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nation Source Type: news

Abortion in Canada —Legal for Decades But Hindered by Stigma
While abortion in Canada has been legal for decades, procuring one is difficult for many. Credit: Gayatri Malhotra/UnsplashBy Juliet MorrisonOttawa, Jul 19 2022 (IPS) Toronto resident Miranda Knight describes her abortion experience as relatively simple. After finding out she was pregnant on a Wednesday in 2017, she booked an appointment at an available clinic and got one for the following Monday. She had the procedure that day and left the clinic by noon. But Knight’s experience is not the reality for all. As Canada’s most populous city, Toronto has several access points to abortion. Despite abortion being legal natio...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 19, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Juliet Morrison Tags: Editors' Choice Featured Gender Health Human Rights Inequality North America Population TerraViva United Nations Women's Health Abortion Canada IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news

Reject CPTPP, Stay out of New Cold War
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis ChowdhuryKUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jul 19 2022 (IPS) Joining or ratifying dubious trade deals is supposed to offer miraculous solutions to recent lacklustre economic progress. Such naïve advocacy is misleading at best, and downright irresponsible, even reckless, at worst. TPP ‘pivot to Asia’ US President Barack Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ after his 2012 re-election sought to check China’s sustained economic growth and technological progress. Its economic centrepiece was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Jomo Kwame SundaramBut the US International Trade Commission (ITC) doubted th...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 19, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury Tags: COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Global Globalisation Headlines Labour TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Jomo Kwame Sundaram & Anis Chowdhury Source Type: news

Webinar: Lessons in Development from the Global South: 50 Years of BRAC
By External SourceJul 15 2022 (IPS-Partners)   This virtual event was hosted by BRAC, the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN, and the Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the UN on the sidelines of the 2022 UN High Level Political Forum. This webinar reflects on BRAC’s role in generating development lessons in the Global South and Bangladesh’s remarkable progress towards meeting the UN SDGs. The panel will discuss SDGs 1: No Poverty; 4: Quality Education, 5: Gender Equality, and 17: Partnerships for the Goals. We hope this event will also promote the need for continued global cooperation in order to achieve the ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 15, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: External Source Tags: Climate Change Education Gender Health Multimedia Video Source Type: news

Achieving the SDGs in Extraordinary Times
By Armida Alisjahbana, Woochong Um and Kanni WignarajaBANGKOK, Thailand, Jul 15 2022 (IPS) The start of the “Decade of Action” to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has also marked the start of an unprecedented period of overlapping crises. The Covid-19 pandemic and crises of conflict, hunger, climate change and environmental degradation are mutually compounding, pushing millions into acute poverty, health, and food insecurity. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has further disrupted supply chains and brought spikes in food and fuel prices. Armida Salsiah AlisjahbanaA region at risk The d...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 15, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Armida Alisjahbana - Woochong Um - Kanni Wignaraja Tags: Armed Conflicts Asia-Pacific Climate Action Climate Change COVID-19 Development & Aid Economy & Trade Energy Environment Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Poverty & SDGs Sustainability IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news

News Fatigue, Anti-Vax and Wars
Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.                                                     Michel de MontaigneBy Jan LundiusSTOCKHOLM, Jul 13 2022 (IPS) During the beginning of the pandemic, people wanted to learn more about COVID-19. Enclosed in their homes they watched with fear and fascination how the pandemic swept over the world, while comparing ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 13, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Jan Lundius Tags: Armed Conflicts COVID-19 Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news

What Future for a World of 8 Billion?
School Opens in Weapons Free Zone East of UNMISS”. Credit: UN Photo/Amanda VoisardBy John WilmothUNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2022 (IPS) What does a young girl from Juba, in South Sudan, an 8-year-old boy living in the slums of Mumbai, in India, a young mother from the south of Lima, in Peru, and an 83-year-old man enjoying retirement in the suburbs of Stockholm, in Sweden, have in common? Many things, perhaps, but here is one of the most important: they are all members of the human population, whose size will surpass 8 billion people in mid-November 2022. They are part of a common humanity that aspires to live peacefully and...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 11, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: John Wilmoth Tags: Development & Aid Featured Gender Global Headlines Health Inequality Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news

India & China Continue to Lead – as World Population Projected to Reach 8.0 Billion
Credit: FreepikBy Thalif DeenUNITED NATIONS, Jul 11 2022 (IPS) India and China, two Asian nuclear powers who are also longstanding rivals embroiled in the geo-politics of the Indian Ocean region, have remained two of the world’s most populous nations accounting for over a billion people each. But as the world’s population reaches the 8.0 billion mark, come November, India is projected to surpass China. The current numbers stand at 1.44 billion people in China and 1.39 billion in India. But the numbers are expected to change as India races ahead of China. The US ranks third with over 335 million people. By the end of l...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 11, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Thalif Deen Tags: Development & Aid Featured Gender Global Headlines Health Inequality Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news

A World of 8 Billion, Yes, But (II): The Unseen, Untold Story of the 50%
"When nearly a third of all women in developing countries are becoming mothers during adolescence, it is clear the world is failing adolescent girls,” said UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem. Credit: Michael Duff/UNFPABy Baher KamalMADRID, Jul 8 2022 (IPS) While women and girls have been so far enjoying some of their due rights in Western high-income countries, the overwhelming majority of teenagers and adult women in the impoverished regions of the current world’s population of 8 billions continue to suffer all kinds of inequalities. Such a harsh reality does not only impact their basic human rights, like equa...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 8, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Baher Kamal Tags: Gender Global Headlines Health Population Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations World Population Day Source Type: news

Differently-Abled Farmers Integrate Digital Technology, Aim To Set Example For Others
Hidden in Pathumthaini province just outside of Bangkok, 0.24 hectares of land adjacent to Seangsan temple has been turned into an urban vegetable farm managed by members of the Association of the Physically handicapped of Pathumthani. ‘Farm Samart, Khon Sama’ consists of a large open greenhouse that sits at the back of the land. In […] (Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health)
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 6, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Pattama Kuentak Tags: Asia-Pacific Food and Agriculture Headlines Health TerraViva United Nations Digital Villages Initiative Thailand Source Type: news

Rights Groups Question ‘ Pregnancy Register ’ for Polish Women
Women’s rights groups have questioned the legal provision requiring doctors to collect records on all pregnancies, saying it could be used to monitor abortions. By Ed HoltBRATISLAVA, Jul 5 2022 (IPS) Women’s rights groups fear a new legal provision in Poland requiring doctors to collect records on all pregnancies could create what they have described as a ‘pregnancy register’ to monitor whether women are having abortions. Poland has some of Europe’s strictest abortion laws with terminations allowed in only two instances – if the woman’s health or life is at risk and if the pregnancy is the result of eithe...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - July 5, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Ed Holt Tags: Editors' Choice Europe Featured Gender Headlines Health Population TerraViva United Nations Women's Health Abortion IPS UN Bureau IPS UN Bureau Report Source Type: news