Afghan midwives address need for more skilled maternal care
Maternal death rates in Afghanistan are down 22% since 2000 thanks to the growing popularity of midwifery training programmes, according to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA.
Maternal death rates in Afghanistan are down 22% since 2000 thanks to the growing popularity of midwifery training programmes, according to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA.
Cancer has been targeted as a major killer across South East Asia by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
WHO estimates that 1.1 million people die of the disease each year across eleven countries in the region.
There’s a clear geographical distinction when it comes to cancer and women. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breast cancer is more common in industrialized countries while cervical cancer overwhelming affects women in the developing world.
A group of 28 Sri Lankan migrants left stranded by people smugglers in Togo in West Africa are on their way home.
The 28 were part of a group of 209 Sri Lankans who, it’s thought, were on their way to Canada via Ethiopia and then Togo.
Deaths from cancer could double to up to 12 million a year worldwide within the next 20 years according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Displacement caused by inter-ethnic violence and a stream of refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Sudan, are some of the challenges facing the new nation of South Sudan.
That assessment comes from UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, who is on her first mission to the country.
“We just received the new data from food security and nutrition analysis in Somalia and we can say that no more, any region in Somalia under famine conditions.”
Training women conflict mediators in countries in Africa and Asia, helping ethnic Moroccan women to inherit property, and creating “safe spaces” for schoolgirls in Zambia.
These are just some of the successes of UN Women, which celebrates its first anniversary this month.
The effectiveness of drugs to fight tuberculosis or TB has been put under the spotlight after research showed that resistance to TB medication has hit record highs in some parts of the world.
TB is a common and often lethal infection which attacks the lungs.
The authorities in Senegal are being warned by the UN that any mishandling of ongoing protests could lead to what have been described as “serious results”.