Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, Jun 8 2007 (IPS) – The Group of Eight industrialised countries suffered a setback Friday in its plan to strengthen intellectual property rights through promoting innovation protecting innovation when the five developing world s leaders China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico forced a key change in the final statement.
The G5 emerging powers pushed the inclusion of the need to address public health in the balance between grave health emergencies and protection of patent rights of pharmaceutical companies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted there was a change from the earlier text, saying with China and India present at the table, there will be some changes.
She said at the concluding press conference th…
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, Jun 3 2009 (IPS) – A new Bolivian government programme will provide special payments to pregnant women and mothers with children up to the age of two, with the aim of cutting the country s maternal and infant mortality rates.
The cash transfers, which will total 258 dollars over the space of a woman s pregnancy and her baby s first two years of life, are conditional on regular pre- and post-natal care visits by the mother and checkups for her baby.
Two women a day die of complications in pregnancy or birth and 48 of 1,000 babies die before their first birthday in Bolivia, South America s poorest country.
The left-wing government of Evo Morales, Bolivia s first indigenous president, already created a monthly stipend for families with schoo…
Lal Aqa Sherin
KABUL, Aug 5 2009 (IPS) – Thirty five-year-old Habibulah Khan walks out of a private clinic in the Afghan capital, covered in dust and looking dog-tired.
Doctors and administrators at private hospitals defend their billing practices Credit: Najibullah Musafer/Killid Media
The doctors, he says, told me to buy medicine from a nearby drug-store and bring the bottle back to him. He says his prescription cannot be found at other pharm…
Keya Acharya
BANGALORE, Mar 16 2011 (IPS) – Several incinerator facilities that were supposed to turn waste into energy have proven to be white elephants that are now adding to the country s pollution woes, instead of alleviating them.
Massive waste-to-energy plant subsidies are ruining the waste management field in India, said Almitra Patel, a civil engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Companies are now using these subsidies to set up plants that fail.
Solid waste experts are alarmed these facilities which failed to work in the 1980s and 1990s continue to exist.
Waste-to-energy (WTE) plants, are releasing toxic fumes because wastes are not being burned properly. Waste incineration technology controversial in western countries i…
Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Jun 15 2011 (IPS) – Cooperation between India and Brazil in pharmaceuticals and medical biotechnology has begun to falter, because Indian authorities would rather collaborate with western counterparts than those in developing countries, new research shows.
As a result, cooperation between the two countries, once touted as capable of solving public health problems in the developing world, has failed to come up with marketable products.
The study by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a publicly funded think tank based in New Delhi, cited as a reason for product failure the lingering perception in concerned Indian ministries and departments that collaboration with the North (referring to developed countries) is mu…
Processing baby vegetables at Sidemane Farm in Swaziland. An EU grant helped local farmers to buy equipment and get training in business management and marketing. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS
May 5 2016 (IPS) – As the World Farmers Organization meets for its annual conference in Zambia to promote policies that strengthen this critical sector, IPS looks at how farmers across the globe are tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change, market fluctuations, water and land manageme…
[Second of a two-part article]
Meeting of the Working Group on the National Mental Health Strategic Plan, January 2020
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct 28 2021 (IPS) – Mental health and treating mental health conditions involves not only treating an individual’s ability to manage their thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and interactions with others, but also ensuring that the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental conditions are in place through effective national policies, social protections, adequate living standards, working conditions, community social support, and a tiered system of care through a robust network of health services. In Banglad…