Climate disruption is leading to the onset of health problems, such as ‘heat stress’ or skin and eye diseases, while certain extreme weather events are responsible for a large number of work-related deaths every year. In Brazil, workers in the least skilled jobs are often hardest [...]Read the full article
Daniel Bertossa:“All governments and actors have an obligation under the Geneva Conventions to protect civilians, especially those providing lifesaving services in conflict zones. Making human rights law optional or context-dependent sends a dangerous message, endangers public service workers and undermines the [...]Read the full article
Veronica Nilsson:“A commitment made by representatives of 40 national governments will not on its own end the global healthcare workforce crisis. But ministers and officials have made that positive commitment and we should hold them to account and work with them to achieve [...]Read the full article
Given how underresearched menopause is, we are yet to see what impact rising global temperatures will have on women, particularly for the 47 per cent of women participating in the global labourforce. But limited research and anecdotal feedback suggests that “pollution and menopause may [...]Read the full article
The trauma of the pandemic, reduced pay in the context of inflation, and the weight of years of austerity in government health spending. Under these combined pressures, midwives in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service are choosing to leave the occupation entirely – leading to critical [...]Read the full article
“The fact that Turkey continues to buy plastic waste from the EU while producing so much plastic itself is due to the growth of the recycling sector. But there’s also another problem here. Research shows that only nine per cent of the plastic produced to date can be [...]Read the full article
Tens of thousands of nurses, nursing assistants and other hospital staff in Cameroon face precarious socio-professional conditions. While many have worked for the state for almost ten years, they are not part of the civil service and lack employment contracts. Some work without salaries, while [...]Read the full article
“Both countries have one thing in common: the absence of social protection policies. This exacerbates social exclusion and poverty of the populations in both Lebanon and Afghanistan.”Read the full article
“The question is: can the world ignore Africa? The fact that other regions don’t have youthful populations means that Africa has an opportunity to actually help address labour shortages elsewhere and the rest of the world will have Africa’s young people to go and contribute to development. But [...]Read the full article
Despite medical breakthroughs, the stigma attached to HIV remains firmly entrenched in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the impact on those affected is devastating. Structural and economic inequalities are also hindering access to effective [...]Read the full article
Venezuela ranks number nine in the world in renewable freshwater resources. However, the state, which is responsible for supplying these resources, guarantees neither their quality nor their availability.Read the full article
As rural areas increasingly empty out, communities are left with fewer and fewer resources, whether public or private, to address dependency and loneliness. Elderly inhabitants are forced to choose between living alone or spending the final stage of their lives in a nursing home far from their [...]Read the full article
Despite the sheer scale of the informal economy hindering the financing of social protection, pragmatic solutions are being sought to ensure some kind of health cover for workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Read the full article
Since 2022, Poland has been presenting itself as a land of solidarity, having welcomed 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees. This solidarity stands in stark contrast with the reality faced by the people crossing the Bialowieza Forest as migrants and refugees from non-European [...]Read the full article
Job automation could affect the quality of work more than the quantity. The issue is not machines taking over our jobs but pushing us into poorer quality employment. The best way to avoid this is to invest in preventive training and to call on companies to act [...]Read the full article
The earthquake was the final blow for an already overstretched health system in Idlib province, exhausted by ten years of war, bombing, and the recent outbreaks of coronavirus and cholera.Read the full article
While South Africa has some of the continent’s most progressive laws on LGBTQ+ rights, LGBTQ+ South Africans still face significant social stigma and violence and struggle to find their place.Read the full article
Marga Zambrana:Experts and international organisations warn that only those who are able to quickly adapt to change through lifelong learning will survive.Read the full article
According to experts, deaf children should be exposed to sign language as early as possible. In addition to ensuring access to education, it also helps to prevent the development of various types of mental illness.Read the full article
Certified organic farming accounts for just 1.5 per cent of the world’s agricultural land, with some 72 million hectares managed by three million farmers in 187 countries.Read the full article
“Rather than universal systems of care, what we have is a chain of precariousness, with some women paying other women what they can to care for their children.”Read the full article
With worsening agrarian conditions, farmers like Supriya are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. The rising cost of agricultural inputs and falling prices for farm produce spells total disaster for the country’s 263 million agricultural [...]Read the full article
“There are some amazing sides to the use of the internet and social media: never before have we had access to so much information and culture. I think it’s important not only to control how many hours we spend using technological devices but, above all, to be discerning about what kind of content [...]Read the full article
The country’s economic collapse has left four out of five Lebanese living below the poverty line. With power outages and shortages of essential goods commonplace, access to drinking water has become a daily emergency.Read the full article
Agricultural innovation from scratch, entrepreneurship in the face of poverty, leading as a woman in traditional societies, and solving concrete problems on a local scale: this summer reading compilation brings together tales of ingenuity and [...]Read the full article
While workplace childcare policies are relatively new in Bolivia, the country is making progress, for example by promoting breastfeeding rooms and day-care facilities. However, such policies are of little use when employers fail to respect labour [...]Read the full article
Selma Jesús de Souza promotes community work that brings social, environmental and quality-of-life improvements to her village and her territory. This includes the manufacture of acoustic insulation panels from wild cane fibre, as well as a multitude of initiatives aimed at empowering young [...]Read the full article
In Europe, growing awareness of the social inequalities in exposure to air pollution is as yet to be translated into public policy, despite the work being done by scientists and citizens to analyse and raise consciousness about the impact on the most exposed [...]Read the full article
The boom in teleworking triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of mental health in the workplace and initial steps are being taken to change a work culture characterised by long hours in the office and low [...]Read the full article
Since the start of the armed conflict in Mali in 2012, mines and improvised explosive devices have claimed numerous lives every year. A rehabilitation centre in Bamako provides amputee survivors with custom-made prostheses and psychological [...]Read the full article
With songs, TV series, books and podcasts, creators from all over the world are giving visibility and generating debate around anxiety, depression and even suicide. A taboo subject until recently, the pandemic has placed mental health front and centre in the global [...]Read the full article
Home healthcare is a fast-growing sector in the United States, with a large percentage of women, minority and immigrant workers. However, the appreciation for such essential labour during the Covid-19 pandemic has not translated into acceptable pay and conditions, with many workers unable to [...]Read the full article
Veronica Nilsson:
