As a researcher in the area of public health and health systems, I hope that any global meaningful standard for universal health coverage will include benchmarks for primary health care including patient participation in health systems.
The term “leaving no one behind,” now at the centre of a United Nations framework and campaign, has gained centre stage in the era of sustainable development goals (SDGs). It does not stop there: leaving no one behind is also now prevalent among the public health academics, development agencies and organizations that aspire to realize... Continue Reading →
Women health-care volunteers in low-income countries such as Afghanistan, Nepal and Ethiopia play a vital role in the health-care system, yet they are undervalued and undertrained. Many community health programs use volunteer Community Health Workers (CHW) to provide basic health-related services to rural and remote populations. Most of these thousands of volunteers, trained for a short period and supported by... Continue Reading →
Single-fathers have three times higher chances of dying compared to single-mothers and partnered-fathers, a recent study published in the Lancet Public Health found. The study used Canadian Community Health Survey between the years of 2001 and 2012. Families with single-parents are increasingly becoming common in high-income countries. Although most of them are headed by single-mothers,... Continue Reading →
International Women's Day, March 8th, is supposed to be about freedom, equality, and empowerment of women. Yet, many different societies have turned it into a celebration of women's status as is. Honoring motherhood and celebrating love objects are mere praises for the reproduction capacity of women and in turn a promotion of patriarchy. A gift... Continue Reading →
Since the adoption of the United Nations resolutions to ‘transform our world by 2030’ and ‘leave no one behind’ – also known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development the Afghan government has shown a keenness to implement the resolution and march toward sustainable development. A three-phase Afghanistan Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process including nationalisation, alignment, and implementation... Continue Reading →
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has recently announced a User Fee Regulation under which user fees will be levied for services in secondary and tertiary public health facilities. The details of how much will be charged, for what services, and when the regulation will actually come into effect are yet to be known. What is known... Continue Reading →
Presented with the question as to ‘why you ended up in research’ in the first ever Starting Investigators Workshop by the CIHR's Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) in Ottawa, I said, "my interest in research dates back five generations in our family.” I was kidding, obviously. Yet, there is a tinge of truth in... Continue Reading →
I sometimes wonder what would it be like to live a gender-blind society, where surgeons, managers, and pilots were not assumed to be males, and fly attendants, waiters, nurses, and cleaners were not assumed to be females.
This blog was first published on March 24, 2010. It is edited and revised on its 7th anniversary. Do you remember your parents or grandparents shouting into a telephone, forcing their voice to reach the other end? The voice was the loudest if the call was intercontinental. My dad is much better these days,... Continue Reading →
