Mario de Queiroz
LISBON, Mar 29 2007 (IPS) – Drastic public health budget cuts in Portugal have led to the closure of emergency and maternity services and prompted protests against the government of socialist Prime Minister José Sócrates.
As a result of economic reforms and austerity measures adopted by the government to reduce the budget deficit, Portuguese women in some border areas must now cross into Spain to give birth.
Hospitals in Spain have signed agreements with their counterparts across the border in Portugal. One such case involves the cities of Badajoz in western Spain and Elvas in eastern Portugal.
The battle for Portuguese women s right to give birth in their own country is not the only consequence of the budget cuts in the health system, altho…
Matthew O. Berger
WASHINGTON, Nov 19 2010 (IPS) – Rising food prices have not yet reached crisis levels but they are expected to remain very volatile for about the next decade, researchers said Thursday.
The conclusions were based on a new study of the factors that contributed to the 2007-08 food crisis, which researchers hope will shed light on what actions might be taken to avoid food crises in the future.
There were many suspects for what caused the crisis, but little evidence, said Derek Headey, a research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, who co- authored the report. Three years on, there is more evidence.
The IFPRI study cites a perfect storm of factors: rising energy prices, demand for biofuels, depreciation of the U.S. dolla…
PORT-LOUIS, Mauritius, Jan 3 2011 (IPS) – Sex workers rights are human rights , close to a hundred people shouted during a recent march in Rose-Hill, a major town in Mauritius. Their aim was to sensitise the population, particularly the parliamentarians, to the state of sex workers on the island.
Sex workers marching for human rights Credit: Nasseem Ackbarrally/IPS
Beaten by their clients and even by police officers, looked down upon by the public and ill treated at hospitals and in other institutions, these women have many door…
A municipal truck sanitizes the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh in order to prevent COVID-19.
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Jun 22 2020 (IPS) – One of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh exemplifies the triple blow that many emerging market countries have suffered from COVID-19: domestic slowdown caused by the disease and the efforts to contain its spread; a sharp decline in exports, particularly in the ready-made garment sector, and a drop in remittances. Its once robust economy has dramatically slowed in recent months.
To help Bangladesh during this crisis, the IMF has approved totaling around $732 million. IMF Country Focus spoke wi…
MEXICO CITY, Nov 18 2020 (IPS) – As many have observed worldwide, the outcome of the US presidential elections has been, as expected full of hope and fear. Many people had the bad feeling that if Trump were to be re-elected, the uncertainty, already enormous due to the pandemic and its effects, would jeopardize the economic recovery worldwide. The triumph of Democrat Biden does not guarantee great solutions, but at the least offers a little more of transparency, certainty, and stability.
Saul Escobar Toledo
For Mexico, the result could impact in different senses: the policy towards Latin America; pressures to stop undocumented migration; and the economic and commercial ties bet…