July 2016 linkedinPulse; Packed securely inside the boxes was a new mammography system, being ferried upstream from the Port of Lamu in Kenya, where I traveled last month, to a small rural town, where women were in need of access to screening. Every patient everywhere in the world deserves such …
Read More »KENYA : NHIF underused by workers in informal sector
July 2016 DailyNation; Workers in Kenya’s informal sector are being largely bypassed by the benefits of Kenya’s public health insurance system, a review of health financing data shows. Informal sector workers make up only 39 per cent of the 5.2 million workers who were contributing members of NHIF in 2015, …
Read More »If Food Labels Aren’t Simple, Consumers May Ignore Them
June 2016 TheConversation; Consumers gather information about food from a variety of sources including their families, the media and through education. But another way that they can get the information is through food and nutrition labels. Nutrition labelling refers to the section on food labels that declares nutrient content. This …
Read More »Africa will be Short Six Million Healthcare Workers by 2030, But it Can Still Achieve its Commitment of Universal Health Care if it Takes Action Now
June 2016 gehealthcareNews; Sub-Saharan African populations and economies are growing at unprecedented speed with a population growth of 2.7% and economic growth of 4.4% annually. Africa has the fastest growing middle class in the world, with 313 million people (roughly the population of the US), 34% of Africa’s population. This …
Read More »Writing about health system governance in low- and middle-income countries: concepts, methods and gaps
June 2016 Chesai; Within development debates and applied to national governments, “good governance” is often seen as a loaded term infused with political and value judgements. Yet health system governance is widely seen as a crucial leverage point to generate performance improvements. But what is health system governance? The common …
Read More »Breast-Feeding Boosts Intelligence and Global Growth
February 2016 SciDevNet; Breast-feeding children rather than using milk substitutes would add more than US$300 billion a year to the global economy, releasing money to deal with issues such as hunger, education and the environment, according to a study. The effects on children’s long-term health and cognition are so great …
Read More »ZIMBABWE: Drug Shortages – a National Crisis
February 2016 TheFinancialGazette; AS the donor community is busy trying to ensure that there is enough food for millions of Zimbabweans facing starvation, another disaster that may soon call for the donors’ attention is unfolding in the country’s hospitals. A massive shortage of basic clinical drugs at major public health …
Read More »RE PRO-POOR BENEFITS OF AFRICAS GREEN REVOLUTION BASED ON MYTHS?
February 2016 Reuters: Rather than alleviating poverty, a farming revolution aimed at increasing and modernising agricultural production in Africa could be harming the poorest, according to a new study. The University of East Anglia research details how changes brought on by modernisation programmes disrupt subsistence practices, deepen poverty, impair local …
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