Has Germany failed to live up to its global health ambitions?
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 […]
Maternal health services take a hit during global lockdown
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 […]
Are local and international aid worker disparities worsening under COVID-19?
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.
As aid groups scramble to contain COVID-19, malnutrition set to increase
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.
Germany plans sweeping changes to aid
Germany is planning sweeping changes to its development spending, cutting its support to 25 countries — including ending eight bilateral country programs — and rerouting most money for health and early education through multilateral agencies. Read more.
As Europe uses aid to push private investment in Africa, NGOs push back
Germany is part of a pattern across Europe of leaders pushing private sector expansion in Africa — in part to shore up domestic support for aid among voters and industry, but also in the hopes it may create jobs that will help slow migration flows. Read more.
The challenge of local implementation in Uganda’s new nutrition policy
Despite presidentially endorsed, multisectoral strategies to end malnutrition, including a new national plan set for approval in a matter of weeks, stunting remains pervasive among children across Uganda, affecting almost a third of all children under 5 years old — an estimated 2.2 million, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. That rate has dropped gradually over the […]
Germany follows UK to launch €25M climate disaster insurance fund
The German government is looking to share the risk with the global south for climate-related catastrophes that happen there, building on a model established by the U.K. Read more.
Uganda chosen to host Africa’s biggest HIV conference amid LGBT crackdown
In her plenary address at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, Cindy Kelemi, executive director of the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law, and HIV/AIDS, called attention to missing political leadership in the HIV response. “In our beloved Africa, there are many countries with anti-LGBTI policies and laws,” she told the audience in Kigali, […]
The EAT-Lancet Diet is unaffordable, but who is to blame?
The authors of a new study on the cost of the EAT-Lancet diet have some criticism of the new guidelines, but caution that most reference diets are priced above the poverty line. They said the broader fault lies in systemic issues, such as the way food systems operate and how much people are paid for […]