basic social services

New York - Millions were thrown a lifeline at special session at the United Nations today, when world leaders unveiled a plan for free health care in poor countries.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 nations met in London on Saturday, as a preparatory session for the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh later this month, and to lay the groundwork for the Copenhagen climate talks in December.

West Africa has the lowest literacy rates in the world. This report calculates the scale of the literacy crisis in West Africa, and explores what should be done about it.

Companies producing affordable generic medicines for poor people could be subject to criminal prosecutions and have their medicines seized on orders from big drug companies under plans being drawn up by a closed group of mainly rich countries

The World Health Organization should encourage greater competition between drug companies to ensure poor countries can afford to stockpile medicines effective against swine flu, Oxfam will tell the World Health Assembly this week.

Rich country donors and the World Bank are wasting money and risking lives by continuing to push unproven and discredited private healthcare programs in poor countries. Oxfam’s warning comes in a new report ‘Blind Optimism: Challenging the myths about private health care in poor countries’.

The realization of the right to health for millions of people in poor countries depends upon a massive increase in health services to achieve universal and equitable access.

Despite the absence of a final peace settlement, a dramatic improvement in security in war-ravaged northern Uganda is allowing displaced civilians to return home and has transformed

Respect for human rights will help lift people out of poverty and injustice, allow them to assert their dignity and ensure sustainable development.