In his message marking World Mental Health Day on Tuesday 10 October, the UN chief underlined that mental health is vital to humanity, allowing us to lead fulfilling lives and contribute positively to our communities.
One in eight people globally lives with a mental health condition, with women and young people impacted the most. Many face stigma and discrimination.
No good approach to mental health without human rights
Echoing that message of support, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN human rights office, (OHCHR) released a joint guidance on mental health, human rights and legislation. Their guide -“Mental health, human rights and legislation: guidance and practice” – aims to support countries to reform legislation in order to end human rights abuses and increase access to quality mental health care.
Key elements of this new approach include respecting people’s dignity and “empowering” them to lead full and healthy lives, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. The ambition must also be to transform mental health services by taking a rights-based approach, said Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Inequality
Echoing the need for radical change, the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, called for new and innovative models of mental health policy where holistic support was the focus, along with tackling inequality of care.
While individuals can be genetically predisposed to mental health problems, the UN-appointed independent rights expert also noted that the persecution of individuals because of their gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, class position, migration status or disability negatively affected mental health “as a result of discrimination, social exclusion, marginalisation, criminalisation and exploitation”.
Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms. Mandate-holders are independent human rights experts appointed by the Human Rights Council to address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. They are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and do not receive a salary for their work.
World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for people and communities to unite behind the theme ‘Mental health is a universal human right’ to improve knowledge, raise awareness and drive actions that promote and protect everyone’s mental health as a basic human right.
With decisive leadership and the support of civil society Kerala was able to the spread of COVID-19 down. Picture Supplied
by Ranjit Devraj (new delhi)
Inter Press Service
NEW DELHI, Oct 06 (IPS) – When COVID-19 claimed millions of lives across India, Kerala state at the southern tip of the subcontinent stood apart for low mortality rates that experts attribute to good governance, a robust public health delivery system and strong civil society support.
Kerala, a state of 35 million people, has consistently ranked above the rest of India on the Human Development Index (0.84), with literacy, life expectancy, and human rights records comparable to that of developed countries. It enjoys an infant mortality rate of 12 per thousand live births and a female literacy rate of 92.07 percent.
One reason for Kerala’s high development indices is its remittance economy, with large numbers of its people finding work abroad — an estimated four million are known to be working in the oil-rich Middle Eastern countries alone. Remittances to Kerala averaged 715,789,912 million US dollars annually during the 2004—2023 period.
However, the same expatriate workers became a liability during the pandemic. As they streamed back home, the state government mounted tight monitoring at its four international airports at Kannur, Calicut, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram while following up with quarantine, source tracing and tracking to prevent the virus from spreading in the densely populated state (860 people per square kilometre).
“There are many layers to the measures ordered by the state government, extending to individuals, community, public health systems and private hospitals,” said Jaideep C Menon, professor of adult cardiology and public health at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.
Voluntary Agencies
“Everybody pulled together. Community kitchens run by panchayats ensured essential supplies of grains, vegetables, fruits, petroleum products or drugs,” said Jaideep Menon. Additionally, he said, there were awareness creation programmes run by government-backed self-help groups like ASHA and the women’s voluntary agency Kudumbasree.
“There were instances of essential drugs like Factor VIII for haemophilia, cancer care medicines, etc., being sent through the police networks to remote public health centres (PHCs) during lockdowns. Radioisotopes — supplied to hospitals solely by the Babha Atomic Research Centre — were flown in on specially chartered flights and moved to recipients with police help,” Jaideep C said.
According to Jaideep Menon, the police force proved to be an effective arm of the government’s COVID-19 response, not only for facilitating the movement of essentials but also for providing effective policing that was needed to implement contact tracing and quarantine during the first wave of the pandemic that ran from March to November 2020.
Groups such as the Distress Management Collective India networked influential Malayalis (as Kerala natives are called) living around the world to source medicines, vaccines, and equipment such as oxygen concentrators for COVID-19 patients in dire need.
“On receiving the oxygen concentrators, we delivered them to people with breathing difficulties in remote places of Kerala,” says Anil Jabbar, a local coordinator in the state for the DMCI. “The instructions on how to calibrate and use the equipment were then provided over smartphone videos to protect ourselves from getting infected.”
Coordination expertise came from Vinod Chandra Menon, a founder member of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and former Asia regional director of the International Emergency Management Society, Oslo.
“The odds in Kerala were tremendous because of a moving population – in fact, the first recorded Covid case in India was that of a female medical student in Wuhan who flew back home to Kerala on 23 January 2020,” said Vinod Menon.
“What was instructive was the professional way in which the authorities handled the case,” said Vinod Menon. “She had no symptoms but based on her travel history in China, she was placed in an isolation room, and her throat swab and blood samples were flown to the National Institute of Virology in Pune, where the samples tested positive for COVID-19.”
“It was clear from the start that early detection and early response was the way to go, and Kerala averted a major disaster by simply following the standard operating procedure that was laid down from the start,” said Vinod Menon.
“Unlike in most of India, Kerala’s interdepartmental coordination was excellent and meshed together with voluntary agencies and women’s help groups thanks to backing from the highest levels of government right down to the villages.”
While the number of COVID-19 fatalities in India remains contentious, with some estimates placing it above 5 million, calculations based on National Survey Data indicate that between 1 June 2020 and 1 July 2021 alone, there were 3.2 million deaths from the virus.
In contrast, Kerala’s data, even after the second wave between April and March 2021, suggested “relatively limited spread, fairly effective mitigation and better surveillance of both infections and deaths than in most parts of the country,” according to Murad Banaji a lecturer in applied mathematics at the University Oxford with an interest in analysing the pandemic in India.
It helped that Kerala had been primed up for community participation, interdepartmental coordination, participation of local self-governments and social mobilisation by voluntary agencies through the experience of responding to a massive flood that devastated the state in 2018 and a Nipah virus epidemic in 2018—2019.
Said Sandhya Raveendran, who is both a surveillance officer for Kollam as well as the deputy medical officer for the district: “We hit the ground running. Even before the first case was identified, we were ready with mock drills and rapid response teams, thanks to the legacy of handling a Nipah virus outbreak.”
Sample collection teams, consisting of a medical officer, a nurse or laboratory technician and a driver, all equipped with PPE kits, fanned out daily along predetermined routes after prior intimation to sites that were due to be visited, said Sandhya Raveendran.
“Key to containment was the early setting up of sentinel surveillance using RT PCR tests followed by the setting up of laboratories capable of performing accurate tests,” said Raveendran. “What became clear after four rounds of tests was that most of the cases were imported and that there was no community transmission.”
The laboratories were linked to an ‘integrated health information platform’ for real-time reporting of detailed results so that action could be rapidly taken at the field level and epidemiological investigations could be carried out by special rapid response teams.
By early March 2020, the state had the highest number of active cases in India, but using the trace, quarantine, test, isolate and treat strategy, by June 2020, Kerala managed to keep the basic reproduction number (transmission per primary infected person to the secondarily infected persons) at 0.454 against the India average of 1.225.
Decisive leadership
“What worked was decisive leadership from the top in setting up command centres in various districts under the district collector (chief administrator), following directives from the chief minister and the state health department,” said Jaideep Menon. “This led to health taking centre-stage for a prolonged period in both print and audio-visual media.”
“In sum, Kerala’s proactive approach to quarantine, infection prevention and control, the state’s strong public health system that could reach every household, and an empowered and literate community pulled together to combat the pandemic.”
He says the key lesson for the rest of India is that a robust disaster management plan must be instituted with clarity on who does what, adding that while all the states had voluntary agencies and local self-governments, they were not harnessed towards quick and effective intervention in the way Kerala did.
“Pandemics like COVID-19 are a distinct possibility in the future, and that’s why it is important to clearly define the role and mandate of each implementing agency by governments.”
Note: This article was supported by the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Internews.
BONN, Germany, Oct 04 (IPS) – Once a year, on October 5, we celebrate World Teachers’ Day. Why is it so important to have a closer look on the teaching profession? What is so special about being a teacher nowadays?
World Teachers’ Day is an international day which was established to attract public attention on the work of teachers. The day was established in 1994, in commemora-tion the signing of the “ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers” in 1966, which focused on “appreciating, assessing and improving the ed-ucators of the world” and on providing a global opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching (see Wikipedia, The Free Encycopledia, World Teachers’ Day).
With benchmarks regarding teacher’s rights and responsibilities, standards for their preparation when starting the profession as well as their ongoing training and em-ployment their profession got international attention. This is due to the fact that teaching and learning conditions are most important for the development of pupils and students everywhere.
Dr. Heike KuhnEducation is also at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a stand-alone goal: SDG 4 demands inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. With a special target, SDG focuses on teachers, stating that by 2030, there is a need to substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in develop-ing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states (SDG 4c). The 2030 Agenda was signed in 2015 in New York, but was has happened up to now in order to reach this goal?
Special attention was given to teachers during the UN Transforming Education Summit on September 19, 2022, with relevant recommendations stating that teaching should be an attractive and recognised profession, taking into account that teachers need autonomy, decent working conditions, support and lifelong learning opportunities.
However, a year later, reality is quite disillusioning as we can see from the theme for World Teachers’ Day 2023: “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage”.
How come that this profession has suffered from attrition? For decades, the educa-tion sector has been chronically underfunded. Already in 2016, data analysis from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimated that in order to meet the targets of the SDGs by 2030, nearly 69 million more teachers were needed. Most recent estimates by UNESCO and the Teacher Task Force (TTF) confirm this number today, revealing that in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia alone, an additional 24 million teachers are required.
So what are the root causes and what should be done? Starting with the most im-portant reasons: The COVID 19 pandemic and its long school closures have even worsened an already dire situation. Becoming a teacher is simply no longer attrac-tive: teaching many pupils, put together in crowded classes in not adequately main-tained buildings and not being reasonably paid for the often exhaustive pedagogic work does not come along with incentives for this ambitious profession.
Credit: Education Cannot Wait
Disillusioned by these working conditions, teachers leave their countries for better paid teaching jobs in other regions (e.g. Caribbean teachers move to the US) or – even worse – quit being teachers in order to pursue other jobs.
With children dropping out of schools due to wars, conflicts or the ongoing climate crisis, teachers face new challenges all the time, their mental health is as endan-gered as the mental health of their pupils. And how can a child traumatized by war and escape, living in overcrowded refugee camps concentrate on school subjects? And what a challenge for teachers who might have made similar experiences but nonetheless try to convey hope and structure as well as a bit or normal life to the children in their lessons.
So what is teaching all about? It is about learning and changing your mind-set. Teachers can empower children of all sexes, can open perspectives for lives and therefore ignite change in millions of young pupils. Female teachers are often role models for girls, conveying self-esteem, questioning harmful gender norms. Teachers can educate green skills needed so much nowadays when we are taking the first steps, sometimes stumbling on our way to a green economy, no longer exploiting our planet.
Let me ask you: Do you remember when a teacher empowered you, believing in you? Hopefully you do and hopefully you could experience the power and the impact on your life.
This is exactly why we need qualified teachers so urgently, everywhere. Education is a human right that shall no longer be a privilege for few people, but an opportunity for all – including the possibilities of digitization and AI. All children and learners deserve it. And we need teachers to inspire all human beings, letting them thrive in order to restore and save the planet.
In my country, Germany, there is a saying: A teacher is much more important than two books. I firmly believe this is true.
Dr. Heike Kuhn is Head of Division, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Bonn, Germany
Co-Chair of the Teacher Task Force (with South Africa), https://teachertaskforce.org/
Co-Chair of the Executive Committee of ECW (with Norway), https://educationcannotwait.org/
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by Britain’s Oxford University, can be used to curb the life-threatening illness spread to humans by mosquitoes, the WHO said, stating that “both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have high public health impact.”
It is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021.
According to WHO, malaria “places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region”, with nearly half a million children dying each year.
“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Unprecedented demand
Demand for malaria vaccines is unprecedented; however, RTS,S is in short supply. The addition of R21 to the list of approved shots is expected to result in sufficient supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk.
Tedros described it as “a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future.”
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the shot “holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.”
Next steps
WHO is now reviewing the vaccine for prequalification. Having got approval that will enable GAVI [a global vaccine alliance] and Children’s Fund UNICEF to buy the vaccine from manufacturers, added Tedros.
The vaccine will be rolled out in some African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria in early 2024, and will be available in mid-2024 in other countries, Tedros said, adding that doses would cost between $2 and $4.
According to Tedros, WHO approved the new malaria vaccine based on the advice of two expert groups: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG).
Recommendation on dengue, meningitis
WHO also recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ vaccine against dengue for children aged six to 16 living in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem.
Dengue, common in tropical and subtropical climates, is a viral infection spread from mosquitoes to people.
WHO’s advisory group SAGE also recommended that all countries in the African “meningitis belt” introduce what it described as (Men5CV) into their routine immunization programmes. It said a single dose scheduled at nine to 18 months of age should fight the disease.
WHO added that “in high-risk countries, and countries with high-risk districts, a catch-up campaign should also be conducted at the time of the introduction of Men5CV, targeting all individuals aged 1 to 19 years.”
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) allows experts from both international organizations to collaborate and share information on issues where anti-doping and public health intersect.
It provides a framework to further goals on health promotion, the prevention of substance abuse and emerging drugs – and for encouraging clean and fair competition.
‘Watershed’ agreement
WADA President Witold Bańka described the agreement as “a watershed moment that will benefit anti-doping efforts worldwide.”
One of the three criteria for a substance to be added to its prohibited list is if it presents an actual or potential health risk to athletes, he explained.
“Through our agreement with WHO, experts from both organizations will be able to work collaboratively to exchange information on emerging substances and reinforce scientific positions that will ultimately benefit not only athletes, but society as a whole,” he said.
Far-reaching benefits
For his part, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus underscored how competitive sport inspires people everywhere to be more active, thus contributing to good health.
“The use of performance-enhancing substances can harm athletes, and certainly harms sport and those who look up to athletes as role-models. Keeping sport clean, therefore, has benefits beyond the sporting arena for the health and well-being of individuals and societies everywhere,” he said.
Preventing risks, raising awareness
The MOU, which runs until October 2027, covers themes that include prevention and assessment of health risks associated with psychoactive substance use and related disorders.
The partners will raise awareness through education initiatives with the support of goodwill ambassadors and influencers to drive positive change.
They will address sub-standard and falsified medical products, including identification of new emerging psychoactive drugs through sharing of information, mutual support, and engagement with sport federations.
Furthermore, they will report on abuse and misuse of falsified and sub-standard medical products in sport.
Healthy lives overall
The MOU also aligns with both organizations’ common objective towards ensuring healthy lives and well-being for all people, which is based on the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by world leaders in 2015.
The UN agency said on Friday that 264 suspected cholera cases, four confirmed cases and 16 associated deaths werereportedin the eastern state as of 25 September.
Investigations are taking place to determine whether the disease has spread to Khartoum and South Kordofan states, which have seen increased cases of acute watery diarrhoea.
Sampling and surveillance
WHO is deploying rapid response teams to the affected localities and is actively supporting the Ministry of Health to transfer samples of suspected cases to the Public Health Laboratory in Port Sudan.
Surveillance is ongoing in affected and high-risk areas to identify and address risk factors. A request is going out to the international body managing emergency vaccine supplies during major outbreaks, the ICG, for oral cholera vaccines.
Access amid war
The WHO Representative in Sudan, Dr Nima Abid, visited Gederaf state on 17 September and met with health authorities and partners to coordinate response to the outbreak.
He stressed the importance of having unhindered access to the affected areas and nearby locations.
“A cholera outbreak can have a devastating effect in the context of a health system already overstretched because of war, shortages of medical supplies and health workers, malnutrition and access challenges,” he said.
Healthcare under fire
The war in Sudan erupted in mid-April. Fierce fighting between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left thousands dead and uprooted more than five million, with impacts across the region.
Sudan is also grappling with disease outbreaks and malnutrition, which have been compounded by heavy rains and flooding. The health system is overwhelmed by attacks on facilities as well as the scarcity of medical supplies and equipment, health workers and operational funds.
Some 70 per cent of hospitals in conflict-affected states are non-functional, while active hospitals elsewhere are overwhelmed by the influx of internally displaced people.
Support, supplies and training
WHO said that even before the outbreak was declared it had already provided cholera supplies such as antibiotics, oral rehydration solution and intravenous fluids to six states in Sudan.
The agency was also supporting three cholera isolation centres in Gedarefstate, providing medicines and health supplies to two facilities, and equipment and medical supplies to the third.
Earlier this year, more than 2,800 Sudanese health workers took part in an online training course conducted by WHO on the management of acute watery diarrhoea in times of crisis.
Another online course was held this week for 8,000 health workers which covered cholera, dengue and malaria management protocols.
According to the UN health agency, the tobacco industry’s approach has resulted in increased use of e-cigarettes, with nine out of 10 smokers starting before the age of 18 – and some as early as 11.
“Considering that children spend nearly one-third of their waking hours in school, and much of the peer pressure they encounter occurs within these educational environments, schools play a pivotal role,” WHO said.
Schools are in “a uniquely powerful position to play a major role in reducing the serious problem of smoking and other tobacco and nicotine use by kids”.
The appeal of e-cigarettes
Although smoking has continued to decline among European teens, WHO reported that there has been a rise in novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products – including electronic cigarettes.
The UN agency pointed out these products have been made more affordable for young people owing to the sale of single-use cigarettes and e-cigarettes, which also typically lack health warnings.
“If we don’t take urgent action now, we risk seeing the next generation of tobacco and nicotine users recruited through tobacco industries’ unethical practices,” said Dr Hans Henri Kluge, Regional Director for WHO European Region.
The launch also coincided with a warning last month by regulators in the United States that companies must stop selling illegal e-cigarettes that appeal to youth by resembling school supplies, cartoon characters, and even teddy bears.
“Whether sitting in class, playing games outside or waiting at the school bus stop, we must protect young people from deadly second-hand smoke and toxic e-cigarette emissions as well as ads promoting these products,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, WHO Director of Health Promotion.
“It is deeply concerning that the tobacco industry is still targeting young people and makes vast profits, harming their health”, he continued.
Schools must be safe spaces for young people, where they are free from exposure to, or pressure to use nicotine products. Creating a smoke- and nicotine-free environment in school settings is fundamental to helping prevent young people from starting smoking”.
The WHO guides also highlight countries that have successfully implemented policies in support of tobacco and nicotine-free campuses. They include India, Indonesia, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine.
‘Whole-of-school’ approach
WHO emphasized a “whole-of-school” approach to creating nicotine and tobacco-free campuses. Input is needed from teachers, staff, students and parents, WHO maintained.
The UN health agency’s documents include information on how to support students wanting to quit, education campaigns, implementing policies and how to enforce them.
Advice to educators and policymakers includes:
Banning nicotine and tobacco products on school campuses
Prohibiting the sale of products near schools
Banning direct and indirect ads and promotion of nicotine and tobacco products near classrooms
Refusing sponsorship or engagement with tobacco and nicotine industries, for instance for school projects.
Dangers of tobacco smoke
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, WHO medical officer Dr Kerstin Schotte warned that tobacco kills “eight million people every year, or one person every four seconds”.
Meanwhile, 1.3 million people who die from tobacco smoke don’t even use the product themselves but breathe in second-hand smoke.
Dr Schotte noted that “half of the world’s children breathe tobacco polluted air and as a consequence, 51,000 children die every year due to exposure to tobacco smoke”.
The document lays out ambitious new targets for the next five years that include reaching 90 per cent of people with TB prevention and care services, providing social benefit packages to those who have the disease, and licensing at least one new vaccine.
TB is the second leading infectious killer worldwide after COVID-19, with some 1.6 million deaths in 2021 alone, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The only available vaccine is more than a century old.
Defeating a killer
“Why, after all the progress we have made – from sending man to the moon, to bringing the world to our fingertips – have we been unable to defeat a preventable and curable disease that kills over 4,400 people a day?” said the President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis.
TB has afflicted humanity for millennia, going by several names including the white plague and consumption.
It is caused by bacteria and mainly affects the lungs, and treatment is with antibiotics. A WHO council established to facilitate the development and equitable use of new vaccines met for the first time this week.
A personal commitment
Stamping out the TB epidemic is among the health targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the roadmap for a more just and green global future by the end of the decade.
Five years ago, countries set the target of delivering TB treatment to 40 million people, reaching 34 million. They also aimed to provide 30 million with preventive treatment but fell short by half.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed called for action to tackle the main drivers of TB – poverty, undernutrition, lack of access to healthcare, the prevalence of HIV infections, diabetes, mental health, and smoking.
Stigma surrounding the disease also needs to be reduced so that people can get help without fear of discrimination, she added, while governments must ensure universal health coverage that includes TB screening, prevention and treatment.
Ms. Mohammed also shared her own reason for supporting the global fight.
“My commitment is my personal story: losing my father to TB at 50, 37 years ago this week,” she said. “Today we have the tools to diagnose, treat, and what we need right now is a vaccine. Let’s end TB now. It is possible.”
Stigma fuels death
Mongolian author Handaa Rea, who has survived the disease, urged world leaders to “treat TB not only medically but also socially.”
She has written about her own experience of TB-related stigma, discrimination that she said is prevalent in many developing countries, resulting in “hundreds of thousands of people” delaying seeking treatment.
The consequences of stigma are “more enhanced” for women and girls who are held to higher standards of health, well-being and beauty, she added.
“When society says things like ‘she’s too skinny, because she has TB, she’s unworthy of marriage because she has or had TB, or she continues to have TB because she’s irresponsible,’ we as a society are bullying TB patients one step closer to death – a death that is fully preventable. And this has to stop,” she said.
The ‘final chapter’
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended the “amazing” energy in the room, where participants frequently chanted “End TB, yes we can!”
He welcomed the political declaration, which was agreed by consensus ahead of the meeting. It will be presented to the General Assembly, the UN’s most representative organ, comprising all 193 Member States.
“For millennia, our ancestors have suffered and died with tuberculosis, without knowing what it was, what caused it, or how to stop it,” he said.
“Today, we have knowledge and tools they could only have dreamed of. We have political commitment. And we have an opportunity that no generation in the history of humanity has had: the opportunity to write the final chapter in the story of TB.”
“People and our planet are in crisis”, the UN chief said, highlighting how conflicts continue to drive the vulnerable from their homes, while heatwaves and floods claim lives and division prevails.
‘Leave no one behind’
This year’s Peace Day coincides with the halfway point on the road to the Sustainable Development Goals, and the UN’s message is that the promise of the 2030 Agenda to “leave no one behind” is a key enabler of peace.
Amid the high-stakes political encounters underway at the General Assembly and Security Council in New York, the UN chief also called for the use of the “timeless tools of diplomacy, dialogue and collaboration” to defuse tensions and end conflict.
“Peace is not only a noble vision for humanity. Peace is a call to action,” Mr. Guterres insisted.
Historic treaty opens for signatures at General Assembly
After almost two decades of negotiations, the first-ever international agreement to conserve marine biodiversity and preserve the world’s oceans is now open for signatures at the UN General Assembly.
The so-called high seas treaty was adopted in June, when UN chief António Guterres hailed it as a “victory for multilateralism”. It was signed by 67 countries on Wednesday but must still be ratified by each State according to its own procedures.
The treaty is a legally binding instrument under the UN Convention of Law of the Sea to address the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.
These areas cover over two-thirds of the ocean.
The high seas treaty will come into force 120 days after it’s been ratified by a minimum of 60 countries, which could take years. The UN said it hopes that all Member States will join the agreement.
More and more Palestinians displaced by settler violence
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has been steadily increasing across the occupied West Bank, displacing over 1,000 people since last year, according to the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA).
OCHA said on Thursday that in the first eight months of 2023, an average of three settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians occurred on average every day – the highest rate since the UN started recording this data in 2006.
In an assessment of the humanitarian needs of 63 Palestinian herding communities in the occupied West Bank conducted last month, the UN found that around 12 per cent of the population have been displaced since 2022, citing settler violence and being prevented access to grazing land by settlers as the primary reasons.
Most of those displaced were in the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus and Hebron, which also have the highest number of Israeli settlement outposts.
Four of the communities have been completely displaced and are now empty, OCHA said.
Support self-reliance
The expansion of settlements into grazing land for livestock, takeovers of land by settlers, destruction of crops, confiscation of land and herds following the declaration of a closed military area, and deliberate pollution of water sources, were all cited as issues affecting the lives and livelihoods of Palestinian herder communities.
OCHA said that Palestinian herders “should be self-reliant” based on traditional patterns, but instead, they need humanitarian assistance because of settler violence and the “failure of Israeli authorities to hold perpetrators accountable”.
The ensuing displacement of Palestinians “may amount to forcible transfer”, a grave breach of international humanitarian law, humanitarians warned.
Polio outbreak in Ukraine closed: WHO
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a poliovirus outbreak in Ukraine officially over.
WHO said it was a “public health success story” that Ukraine had managed to stop transmission of the virus that “threatened the lives and futures of its children” and prevent its spread to other countries, all in the face of the ongoing war.
The outbreak was first detected in a young child in Ukraine in October 2021, subsequently linked to a poliovirus episode in Pakistan.
WHO said that the comprehensive outbreak response initiated by Ukraine’s health ministry faced multiple challenges since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including massive population displacement, destruction of healthcare infrastructure and disruption of logistics routes.
The Government response, supported by WHO and partners, included contact tracing, disease surveillance and an accelerated immunization catch-up campaign for children aged six months to six years who had not received the required doses through routine immunization.
The UN health agency said that “tremendous credit” should go to the health professionals and parents who continue to make every effort to vaccinate children on schedule, “even while navigating the daily realities and dangers of war”.
Without health, the world is badly hobbled in its race to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Goals; the recently opened 78th session of the UN General Assembly aims to change that.
On the docket is a fresh global strategy to prevent, prepare, and respond to future pandemics on the heels of hard lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. International agreements are also in the pipeline to tackle the global tuberculosis epidemic and to promote universal health coverage for all.
“We live in a world of many competing priorities, but we need to keep the attention of world leaders on health as the foundation of sustainable development,” said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Here are the top five things to know about the UNGA 78’s ministerial-level health meetings:
A man receives his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during a door-to-door vaccine campaign in Rajasthan, India. (file)
1. New pandemic accord goes beyond COVID-19
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, the UN health agency was forging innovative ways to handle global outbreaks of deadly diseases and viruses. Only months before the global coronavirus lockdown in March 2020, WHO was discussing an international strategy. Now a new pandemic accord is before the world at UNGA 78.
As nations across the planet painfully learned, no country was immune to the deadly, fast-spreading virus that pushed healthcare systems to their limits, killed more than 6 million people, and set back development gains by decades.
Looking to the future, the plan is to make the world safer by guarding global disease outbreaks and cementing efficient response plans for current and future generations.
Nations have been negotiating a draft declaration that world leaders are expected to adopt at a high-level meeting on 22 September.
Many countries with the most advanced medical care systems were caught by surprise by COVID-19 because of their historic lack of investment in primary health care, according to the WHO chief.
On 21 September, ministers will gather at UN Headquarters for a high-level meeting on universal health coverage.
Weaving through a range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the WHO chief said providing universal health coverage makes sense.
He said strong primary health care (Goal 3) requires long-term investments in health and care workers, and specifically in decent working conditions (Goal 8). Moreover, investing in education (Goal 4) must be matched to jobs and careers, with the right salaries and incentives, he added.
Given that two-thirds of the global health and care workforce are women, he emphasized that investments in the health and care workforce can also advance gender equality (Goal 5).
The draft political declaration expected to be adopted on Thursday aims towards one main result: a healthier population.
3. SDG 3 Health Clinic
While diplomats debate global challenges at UN Headquarters, the UN health agency, WHO, has set up the SDG 3 Health Clinic, no appointments needed.
The Global Scrubs Choir, made up of frontline staff from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, is performing live at the WHO-run SDG 3 Health Clinic during the high-level week at the UN General Assembly’s 78th session.
Visitors can have a seat on a friendship bench and tell clinic staff why mental health is important to them. Health is, after all, not just the absence of disease or infirmity but a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
Fancy some music therapy? The Global Scrubs Choir, comprising frontline staff from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, will be performing daily from 8 am until 8:45 am.
4. Pushing 30-year-old tuberculosis epidemic into history
A high-level dialogue on 22 September aims to intensify global efforts to finally end a decades-long tuberculosis (TB) epidemic, which remains a significant cause of death worldwide.
The preventable and curable disease disproportionately affects developing countries, and one quarter of the world’s population is infected with the bacterium that causes the illness. In 2021, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB, and approximately 1.6 million people died from it in 2021.
Thirty years after WHO declared it a global emergency, the epidemic still is a critical challenge in all regions and affects every country of the world. Millions of people ill with TB are missing out on quality care each year, including on access to affordable diagnostic tests and treatment, especially in developing countries, according to the UN health agency.
Adopting the draft political declaration means nations would commit to a set of actions to swiftly change that.
Find the programme and list of speakers expected at the high-level meeting here.
Patients at a health centre in Peru are given advice about how to avoid catching TB.
5. Global Action Plan
WHO established the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Wellbeing for All, also known as “SDG 3 GAP”, in 2019, bringing together 13 multilateral health, development, and humanitarian agencies around the world. Despite rising challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, they made hard-won inroads, taking their success stories to the SDG Summit in a bid to help.
The goal is simple: to help countries speed progress on health-related SDGs. Together, they take joint action and provide more coordinated and aligned support to country-owned and led national plans and strategies.
“In the last few years, we have been experiencing something of a perfect storm: COVID-19, climate change, conflicts and other crises are threatening the progress achieved over the past 20 years,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which is part of the global network.
The UN has been supporting a cholera vaccine programme in some of the most vulnerable communities in Haiti.
“We can sustain and even accelerate progress if we work together to tackle the most acute health challenges and build stronger and more resilient health systems, but it is vital that as we do so we confront the deep and pervasive health inequities between and within countries.”
Check out the Global Action Plan’s 2023 progress report here.
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