In Germany, businesses are supposed to monitor their foreign subsidiaries and contractors for human rights violations on a voluntary basis. But preliminary results of a survey of larger companies conducted by the Federal Foreign Office found only 22% actually do. The ministers of labor and of economic cooperation and development have a plan to dramatically increase that total. Read more.
Marcel Heyne knew he was sitting on a solution to a problem that emerged early in the COVID-19 pandemic: How to get information about the virus to people in rural communities with high levels of poverty, where literacy is low. For several years, Heyne has been building Audiopedia, a stockpile of audio information on critical subjects that are particularly relevant during a pandemic, including health promotion and disease prevention. The problem was that the scale of the coronavirus crisis exceeded Audiopedia’s capacity . Enter Germany’s #SmartDevelopmentHack.
With potential vaccines racing through the development pipeline at dizzying speeds and existing drugs showing promise as possible treatments for COVID-19, pressure is mounting to ensure all countries have affordable access to any therapeutics or vaccines that eventually emerge.
That is far from guaranteed, but governments of lower- and middle-income countries also have tools they can use to secure affordable access for their citizens, particularly under international trade agreements that allow them to override pharmaceutical patents. Read more.
HIV/AIDS and LGBT rights activist and author. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on June 25, 1935, he died of pneumonia on May 27, 2020, in New York. Read more.
Physician, academic, and researcher who served as the Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. Born on July 27, 1957, in Winneba, Ghana, he died from complications of COVID-19 in Accra, Ghana, on April 10, 2020. Read more.
While Germany spent much of the past decade advancing its global health leadership, it did not coalesce around a cohesive, government-wide strategy. As a result, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, individual arms were able to endorse specific efforts and the chancellory could preach multilateralism, but Germany was not prepared or positioned to help shape a comprehensive strategy for responding to the crisis. Read more.
Infectious disease specialist focusing on HIV prevention and treatment. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Aug 15, 1970, he died from suspected complications of COVID-19 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on May 5, 2020. Read more.
With frustration rising over haphazard responses to the coronavirus, community networks are filling the void across the continent. Read more.
As governments rushed to get measures in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, considerations about the broader ramifications of those restrictions were often overlooked — including how they would affect pregnant women. Now activists are trying to understand the impact lockdowns had on maternal health, even as they attempt to prevent any additional damage. Read more.
HIV researcher who specialized in HIV prevention for women. Born on April 8, 1956, in Kampala, Uganda, she died of complications from COVID-19 on March 31, 2020, outside Durban, South Africa. Read more.
Humanitarian and development agencies have long been criticized for perpetuating neocolonialism through internal policies that tacitly — or explicitly — value international staffers over their local counterparts. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic followed a similar pattern. Read more.
Obstetrician and gynecologist who transformed treatment of obstetric fistula in Ethiopia. Born on January 24, 1924, in Sydney, Australia, she died on March 18, 2020, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Read more.
Author who wrote about mental health, and lawyer. Born July 31, 1967, in New York City, she died on January 7, 2020, in New York City. Read more.
In the rush to stall the spread of COVID-19, experts are warning of disastrous increases in malnutrition in both the immediate and long terms as key programs to deliver food and micronutrients to vulnerable populations are interrupted. Read more.