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 →