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La inclusión financiera y la salud de las mujeres africanas

A fines de octubre, la Oficina Regional para África de la Organización Mundial de la Salud firmó un acuerdo con la Unión Internacional de Telecomunicaciones (UIT) de las Naciones Unidas. El objetivo de esta insólita asociación es alentar el uso de servicios digitales “para salvar vidas y mejorar la salud de las personas”. Pero es probable que el aspecto más innovador del pacto sea el compromiso de combinar las estrategias de inclusión financiera con el suministro moderno de atención médica.

La inclusión financiera es un factor comprobado de mejora de la salud, especialmente para las mujeres de los países en desarrollo.…  Seguir leyendo »

As 140 heads of state and government gather Monday at the United Nations for the Millennium Development Goals summit, they and the public will ask what has come out of this decade-long effort.

The answer will surprise them: A great deal has been achieved, with some of the most exciting breakthroughs occurring in Africa.

I recall how the Millennium Development Goals were initially greeted with cynicism — as unachievable, pie-in-the-sky, a photo-op rather than a development framework. Cynicism has been replaced by hope, born of experience, commitment and breakthroughs.

Back in 2000, the situation in Africa was widely regarded as hopeless.…  Seguir leyendo »

Ten years ago, heads of state from across the world promised “to spare no effort to free their fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.” The historic Millennium Declaration was duly adopted and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were established, with the aim of reversing the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people.

Ten years is a long time, and many millions will be looking to the United Nations General Assembly’s summit meeting next week to assess progress on the MDGs for a beacon of hope, a chink of light.…  Seguir leyendo »

The global economic crisis has claimed many victims – unemployed workers, flooded homeowners and bankrupt pensioners – but nowhere have the repercussions been as devastating as in the developing world.

The setback to the fragile gains of recent years, particularly in Africa, threatens to return millions of people to the extreme poverty from which they had just managed to escape. In addition to the prospect of enormous human suffering, severe economic, political, and social pressures now threaten to overwhelm and destabilise developing countries, triggering conflict on an unprecedented scale.

What makes the downward spiral particularly disheartening is that the economic crisis has hit at a time of the first glimmerings of progress, notably in healthcare.…  Seguir leyendo »