23 October 2016, Jalalabad, Nangarhar – In a very ordinary hostel in Jalalabad, something extraordinary is going on. A young woman is sitting on her hostel bed, bent over a textbook.
This is Abida and she is training to be a nurse in a country where most women haven’t even finished primary school.
New York – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Fund have signed a new US$7 million grant to enhance access to HIV services in eight Caribbean countries – Belize, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The funds will focus on promoting and protecting human rights and access to HIV services for key populations such as men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, marginalized young people and those using drugs, all of whom often bear the highest burden of HIV infection in the region
More than 30 judges from 14 African countries convened in Johannesburg, South Africa 15–17 June this year for the third annual Regional Judges’ Forum to discuss HIV and tuberculosis (TB)-related jurisprudence as part of an ongoing initiative to sensitise senior judges and uphold the rights of people living with HIV in Africa.
“The judiciary must be available for the minority, and in adjudicating cases on minority issues, we must be guided by information, by science, by law, by consideration of justice. If we do so, then we shall have served our purpose”, said Botswana High Court’s Justice Key Dingake, one of the participants at the UN Development Programme (UNDP)-supported meeting.
HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria claim the lives of up to four million people every year. People living in low and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by these epidemics, as fragile health systems struggle to deliver services. The situation is further compounded for those living in the midst of conflict, disasters, crises and political instability.
Whether it’s the rising price of the EpiPen, or new outbreaks of diseases, like Ebola, Zika and yellow fever, the rising costs of health technologies and the lack of new tools to tackle health problems, like antimicrobial resistance, is a problem in rich and poor countries alike.
According to a High-Level Panel convened to advise the UN Secretary-General on improving access to medicines, the world must take bold new approaches to both health technology innovation and ensuring access so that all people can benefit from the medical advances that have dramatically improved the lives of millions around the world in the last century.