Sharon L. Camp, President and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, was in Oslo today and shared her thoughts on the upcoming Obama presidency and its implications for sexual and reproductive health in the developing world.
Founded 40 years ago, The Guttmacher Institute aims to advocate for sexual and reproductive health in the United States and worldwide though social science research , policy analysis and public education.
Alex Kirby, of Panos London provides a good introduction to the issue of climate change. He looks at the causes of climate change, the likely effects, and various mitigation strategies.
According to Kirby, "a serious response to the threat of climate change will need policy choices by and between governments, on both mitigation and adaptation. Preventing climate change is impossible, because the amount of long-lasting greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere means it would continue warming for 30 years or more even if emissions stopped overnight."
The people of Nyimba, a remote district about 300km east of the capital Lusaka, are innocent victims of the impact of climate change, a phenomenon they know or understand little about.
Close to 600 families in the district have been hit by hunger following the floods of the last rainy season which destroyed crops, thereby affecting their food security.
In a recent article in Kenya’s Daily Nation, Gatonye Gathurap writes that following a 2-day conference on biotechnology at the University of Nairobi, scientists from the College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences state that, “although there are genuine concerns over the technology, genetically modified organisms are safe enough for adoption so long as there is sound legislation in place.”
The reaction of civil society to this statement remains to be seen. So far, it has been against the introduction of GMO in Kenya.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is reportedly working with the faculty to install a state-of-the art biotechnology laboratory at the university.
Rwanda is the first East African Community member state to launch the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) initiative which gives primary school children access to laptop computers.
The multi-million dollar initiative is targeting 80 per cent or 2.5 million children in five years’ time.
Prisons are breeding grounds for the spread of tuberculosis. In Malawi between six and ten per cent of those infected countrywide are behind bars.
Frank Kapesa speaks to inmates and officials at the Central Prison in Zomba about their successful TB screening and treatment project. Prison warders are taught how to diagnose the disease and thus contribute to the management of the disease.
The Health Impact Fund (HIF), an innovative scheme to stimulate the research and development of life-saving pharmaceuticals, was presented yesterday in Oslo. The proposal was developed by Incentives for Global Health, an international, interdisciplinary collaboration led by Thomas Pogge of Yale University.
The HIF is a mechanism that offers pharmaceutical innovators a supplementary reward based on the health impact of their products, if they agree to sell those products at cost. It is a reward-based system, rather than a user-pays system. The proposed Fund is to be financed mainly by governments.
The University of Dar es Salaam is amongst three African academic institutions to receive research and training grants totaling US$ 800,000 each to build human capacity in science and engineering.
As a direct move to promote sustainable development, the awards being released through the sponsorship of the Carnegie Corporation of the United States will be used to bolster the population of PhD holders in science and engineering teaching at the universities.
