Jun 10 2016 – The Pakistan Economic Survey 2015-16 reminds us of our ticking population bomb.
We are told that today the country`s population stands at 195.4 million 3.7m more than it was the previous year. We have regressed.
The population growth rate stands at 1.89pc in 2016. It dropped to 1.49pc in 1960-2003.
Yet few express serious concern about the threat we face from our rapidly growing numbers that are undermining our national economy and destroying our social structures.
Many myths have been propagated to camouflage the official apathy vis-à-vis the population sector. Thus, it is said that there is population resistance to family planning on religious grounds. Another myth goes that people are ignorant of birth control and prefer large families.<…
Jul 15 2016 – Do a girl born in a poor household in rural Balochistan and a boy born in a rich household in Karachi have the same or even a similar set of opportunities in life? Are their chances of acquiring an education similar? Do they have access to comparable healthcare services and facilities? Do they have equal opportunities for access to physical infrastructure and the freedom of movement and association?
Faisal Bari
The girl from the poor household in rural Balochistan has a significant probability of not surviving infancy. If she does, it is unlikely she will go to school. The chances of her making it to matriculation are almost negligible. She will be maln…
A child receives an oral polio vaccine in Peshawar, Pakistan. Credit: Ashfaq Yusufzai/IPS.
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 30 2016 (IPS) – Childhood immunisation is one of the safest and most cost-effective health interventions available, yet many of the world s most vulnerable children continue to miss out.
A World Health Organisation report entitled was released last week. While the report is mostly good news, immunisation rates are up and many countries have eradicated diseases entirely, a large population of children remain unimmunised.
To better reach these children the authors also looked at another metric: disease as a marker of inequality. Or, in th…
The United States is withdrawing all of its funding from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) after claiming without evidence that the agency supports coercive abortions in China. UNFPA, which does not provide support for abortions anywhere, says that U.S. funds actually helped it to prevent some 295,000 unsafe abortions in 2016 by supporting voluntary family planning. IPS takes a look at one of the other ways the UNFPA is working to reduce abortions, by addressing gender-biased sex selection.
Credit: Curt Carnemark / World Bank. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 7 2017 (IPS) – When Bimla Chandrasekharan saw that women who gave birth to baby girls were being …
is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
Right to health as enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and; contribution to economic development as envisioned in Vision 2030. Credit: JACARANDA HEALTH
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 19 2017 (IPS) – Every year, one million Kenyans are by healthcare-related expenditures. Poverty predisposes them to disease and slows all aspects of growth in the economy.
Poor health hobbles economic growth. Noble Laureate in Economics Robert Fogel noted in 1993 that better diets, clothing, housing and quality healthcare all play an important role in generat…
New arrivals struggle to find space in the already-overcrowded Kutupalong camp, which saw over 16,000 new arrivals within a week of the outbreak of violence in Myanmar on 25 August 2017. Credit: UNHCR/Vivian Tan
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 9 2017 (IPS) – A dramatic increase in the number of refugees fleeing Myanmar is placing a huge strain on already very limited resources in Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
In the last two weeks alone, an estimated 270,000 Rohingya refugees had sought safety in Bangladesh amid escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
“The situation is very grave,” said UNCHR Bangladesh’s spokesperson Joseph Tr…
In this special series of reports, IPS journalists travel to the border region between Bangladesh and Myanmar to speak with Rohingya refugees, humanitarian workers and officials about the still-unfolding human rights and health crises facing this long-marginalized and persecuted community.
A group of Rohingya children emerge from a nearby religious school in Kutupalong camp. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Dec 5 2017 (IPS) – Mariam Akhtar, 23, is desperately searching for her young daughter two weeks after arriving from Myanmar in Cox’s Bazar, a …
Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.
First Lady of Kenya, Ms Margaret Kenyatta with President Uhuru Kenyatta at the State House in Nairobi Kenya, during the launch of the Second Strategic Framework to improve maternal & child health on 08 March 2018. Credit: State House
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 12 2018 (IPS) – Mr. Maina Kiai’s account () of the exciting dialogue hosted at Stanford University, USA does not present a true account of what transpired at that meeting.
The former WFP Executive Director Ambassador Ertharin Cousin, students, professors, Silicon Valley professionals and civil society were present at this meeting.…
Pulses are good for nutrition and income, particularly for women farmers who look after household food security, like those shown here at a village outside Lusaka, Zambia. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
BRUSSELS, Jun 8 2018 (IPS) – Lawmakers at the highest levels urgently need a “revolution in thinking” to tackle the twin problem of sustainable food production and migration. Starting with an inaugural event in Brussels, then travelling on to New York and Milan, an international team o…
Manipadma Jena interviews the executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute TORGNY HOLMGREN
In south west coastal Satkhira, Bangladesh as salinity has spread to freshwater sources, a private water seller fills his 20-litre cans with public water supply to sell in islands where poor families spend 300 Bangladesh Taka every month to buy drinking and cooking water alone. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS
STOCKHOLM, Sep 11 2018 (IPS) – Growing economies are thirsty economies. And water scarcity has become “the new normal” in many parts of the world, according to Torgny Holmgren executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI).