Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Feb 29 2012 (IPS) – In Latin America, Argentina spends the most on healthcare. It has a vast infrastructure, highly qualified health professionals and the necessary material resources. But other countries in the region are achieving better and faster health outcomes with fewer resources.
This is one of the main conclusions of the study Retos postergados y nuevos desafíos del sistema de salud argentino (Postponed and New Challenges to the Argentine Health System) by Federico Tobar, Sofía Olaviaga and Romina Solano of the independent Centre for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC).

The authors also point to inequities in access to health care in the provinces, and the need for health policies adapted …

Amantha Perera

In some parts of Colombo, informal housing structures, or slums, are built right on waterways. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

COLOMBO, Apr 4 2012 (IPS) – Sri Lanka s capital city Colombo, the vibrant economic and administrative heart of the bustling island nation, is rapidly turning into a city of slums. Home to over 30 percent of the country s population, one in every two people living in the Greater Colombo Area is a slum dweller.
Sadly, Colombo s bulging urban population is not a rarity in South Asia, where most of the region s major metropol…

A nutritionist assesses the health of a child in the Sahel: red indicates severe malnutrition. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

Jun 20 2012 – Since December 2011, the food crisis in Niger has displaced large numbers of people from areas of scarcity to parts of the country that enjoyed better harvests. The social impacts for these internal migrants are serious, not least in terms of disruption of education. 

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the country s second-largest city, Zinder, large-scale movements of people have been observed, particularly from the Gouré and Tanout regions, both north of Zinder,…

NEW YORK, Aug 2 2012 (IPS) – Roasted foie gras fillet, with fresh chestnuts and soymilk skin. This dish from Mugaritz, considered the third-best restaurant in the world, sounds exotic. But how this delicacy foie gras means fat liver is produced and at what cost have been unmasked in an investigation led by .

The organisation the internal management of multiple foie gras farms six in Spain and four in France. In the undercover study, which began in July 2011, activists shot footage and photographs and conducted interviews by pretending to be interested in the industry.

They want to hid…

In 2007, Angeline Mwarusena, who lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was repeatedly raped by soldiers from Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). Credit: Einberger/argum/EED/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 26 2012 (IPS) – At a high-level event at the United Nations in New York on Tuesday, U.N. Women, the United Nations body for female empowerment and gender equality, called for stronger action from world leaders to prevent and punish sexual violence in conflict.

The fact remains that women s bodies remain a battleground, and impunity remains the norm rather than the exception, said Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile and the current executi…

Founder of the World Toilet Organisation Jack Sim says that on the African continent there has been some progress in terms of the community-led total sanitation approach. Courtesy: Meropa Communications

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 10 2012 (IPS) – When the founder of the World Toilet Organisation Jack Sim turned 40, he literally began counting how many more days he had to live and felt a sense of urgency to do meaningful things with the remainder of his life.

“Can you imagine a person coming into this world and spending his life only helping himself? When this person dies, his life has had no meaning, so why did he bother coming here?” he asks.

A successful bus…

KOSICE, Slovakia, Feb 23 2013 (IPS) – Local activists have begun protests in Slovakia after a government ministry appeared to give its backing to a controversial uranium mining project despite reassurances to people living near the proposed site that no mining would be allowed to take place.

Studies carried out by the Canadian firm European Uranium Resources have shown massive uranium ore deposits in the Kuriskova-Jahodna area, near Kosice, Slovakia’s second largest city.

But fierce local opposition to the plans for a mine had previously led to regional authorities saying they would not let any mining go ahead.

Now, though, it has emerged that just before Christmas, the Slovak Economy Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with European Uranium Resource…

South Africa is leading in the scaling up of Kangaroo Mother Care, a lifesaving intervention that mothers can easily practice. Pictured here are Charlene Paul and her baby in front of their house, next to Athlone Training Stadium in Cape Town. Credit: Ann Hellman/IPS

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 23 2013 (IPS) – A young mother – who only wants to be identified as Karren – beamed as she nursed her newborn baby at the University of Witwatersrand’s Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, in Hillbrow, South Africa. 

It is her first pregnancy and Karren had to learn, from a qualified nurse, how to hold and care for her baby.

While Karren will soon be counting her baby’s …

Local activists say they want to see the eradication of FGM in Somalia but note that a “cultural shift” to practice a less severe form could be seen as a positive step towards total elimination of FGM in Somalia. Credit: Abdurrahman Warsameh/IPS

MOGADISHU, Jun 20 2013 (IPS) – Seven-year-old Istar Mumin lies on a bed, motionless, in one of the rooms of her family home in Mogadishu’s Hamarweyne district. She has just gone through the horrifying ritual of “the cut,” which was carried out by a local Somali nurse.

“I am in pain. I cannot move. They cut me,” a teary-eyed Mumin, who was visibly weak from the procedure, tells IPS.

Elsewhere in the ho…

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 2013 (IPS) – The controversial topic of medical cannabis has been put under a microscope after the internationally known neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta came out in support of its use this week.

An ounce of Green Crack bought from a dispensary in California. Credit: Coaster420/public domain

In a lengthy on CNN, Gupta outlines the benefits of medical cannabis, claims that U.S. citizens have been misled by the government for years, and apologises for his role in that. This reversal of opinions occurred during the yearlong production of his documentary �…