This fortnight   The World Health Organization recently concluded another World Health Assembly in May. Discussions at the WHA focused on the organization's role in health emergencies and its financing challenges. Some last-minute changes in the decision on strengthening WHO's flexible budget raised concerns among civil society about increased corporate influence,

This fortnight   When the People's Health Dispatch was launched two years ago, the world was already reeling under the COVID-19 pandemic. The warnings from health activists, voiced long before the pandemic, quickly became a harsh reality. Health systems crumbled under the weight of the pandemic due to cost-cutting measures. These

This fortnight   The People's Health Movement is set to hold a new People's Health Assembly in Cali, Colombia, in late 2023. The assembly will bring together activists and organizations to establish strategies for achieving the right to health. Health workers and trade unions are expected to play a leading role

This fortnight   Despite the critical role that health workers play in keeping communities healthy, the world is still grappling with a severe shortage of trained medical personnel. This problem has been particularly acute in the Global South, where underfunded healthcare systems and aggressive recruitment drives from high-income countries have contributed

This week   In a jubilee year for the World Health Organization, we are still far away from achieving Health for All. For the founders of the WHO, health was “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”, not simply the absence of physical illness. Their vision did not translate

This fortnight   The number of cholera outbreaks in the world continues to grow, as does the number of infections and deaths. Cholera is a well known disease of poverty, and its spread can be contained in a very simple way: by ensuring access to clean water and sanitation. Still, there

This fortnight   Health workers’ protests continue as governments refuse to translate pandemic claps into concrete investment in health systems. In Croatia, physicians’ trade unions and associations organized a mass protest for the protection of the health system. In South Africa, health workers embarked on a ten-day long strike which led

This week   In this thematic edition of People's Health Dispatch, we look at the actions undertaken around the world on occasion of International Working Women's Day. The health of women is strongly intertwined with other aspects of their lives. Adsa Fatima from Sama - Resource Group for Women and Health

This fortnight   The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) closed another meeting with the outlook of continuing discussions on the International Health Regulations and the Pandemic Treaty. Jyotsna Singh from the People’s Health Movement talks about the ways in which the pandemic has influenced these discussions in

This fortnight   Health care delivery in the northwest of Syria remains under threat after the region was hit by two strong earthquakes on February 6. The damage caused by the earthquake adds to the burden accumulated in the health system after years of sanctions, armed conflict, and scarcity of essential

This fortnight   The World Health Organization’s Executive Board is holding its 152nd meeting in Geneva from January 30 to February 7. The Board’s decisions will set most of the agenda to be addressed by WHO during the year, and include health emergencies, progress reports towards Universal Health Coverage,

This fortnight Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plans caused mass protests all over France [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/01/20/emmanuel-macrons-pension-reform-is-a-health-hazard/] , with health workers and collectives joining the mobilizations. The reform would deepen existing health inequalities between workers in different sectors, as well as women and men in the workplace,

This fortnight As a new year begins, nurses around the world are at the forefront of the struggle for the right to health. Tens of thousands of nurses in parts of the United Kingdom went on strike in December 2022. After years of being ignored by different administrations, seeing their

This fortnight The world marked another Human Rights Day on January 10. Even on this day, thousands of people around of world saw their right to health denied and attacked. In some places, this happened because of rising inequalities and the impossibility to access essential necessities, including food. This was

This fortnight Health workers around the world are intensifying action for better working conditions. After strikes in the primary health care system in Madrid and announcements of industrial action by nurses in Portugal [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/21/nurses-in-portugal-demand-wages-at-par-with-employees-in-public-administration/] , health workers in Scotland [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/29/

This fortnight Primary health care is of particular importance for achieving Health for All. Yet, when it comes to implementing health policy and funding health systems, primary health care is regularly ignored. After years of cuts made to primary health care services in Madrid [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/11/20/

This fortnight The World Health Organization, in its role as the United Nations’ health agency, formally stands in the lead for strengthening public health systems worldwide. Yet the role that international financial institutions play in the shaping of health systems has only grown with time. Today, the World Bank and

This fortnight A growing number of communicable diseases outbreaks are adding to the worries of health workers and activists around the world. In Uganda [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/10/21/uganda-needs-equipment-and-solidarity-in-the-face-of-ebola-outbreak/] , the recent Ebola outbreak led to new concerns about the country’s chronic health workers’ shortage and underfunded health

This fortnight Thousands of people around the world joined protests in support of safe abortion on September 28. In some countries, for example in Colombia, the mobilization took place after the women's movement secured progress in the field of sexual and reproductive health rights. Protesters in the United States, on

This fortnight Every September, Medics for the People is among the co-organizers of ManiFiesta, the fest of solidarity in Ostend, Belgium. This year they hosted discussions on the shortage of health workers, workers’ health, and public pharma production. We bring a report [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/24/at-manifiesta-a-different-health-system-is-no-mere-vision/] from

This fortnight Inequities in access to Covid-19 and monkeypox vaccines and medicines point to the benefits the whole world could reap from a research and development model independent of Big Pharma. The ongoing struggle for access to medicines builds upon decades of activism in every corner of the world. Health

This fortnight Access to essential medicines remains a daunting problem for many as pharmaceutical companies from the Global North are allowed to drive the conversation, sidelining governments and patients' interests. Activists from the Delhi Network of Positive People have spent a full month protesting in front of the offices of

This fortnight The World Health Organization declared the global monkeypox [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/01/as-monkeypox-cases-mount-need-of-the-hour-is-an-equitable-and-effective-response/] outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 23 July. The reaction to the outbreak is drawing criticism as the presence of the orthopox virus caused little concern while it was limited

This fortnight Following the historic victory of Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez in Colombia’s [https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/07/21/is-health-transformation-possible-in-colombia-living-sabroso-living-healthy/] presidential election, health workers and patients are looking towards a major transformation of the health system. After decades of neoliberal policies that depleted working conditions and access to

This fortnight Violence against health workers and health infrastructure continues [https://reliefweb.int/report/world/unrelenting-violence-violence-against-health-care-conflict-2021-0] to add to the overall burden  in regions plagued by wars and armed conflict. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is one of the cases where the effects of this are easiest to see: in