WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
The cost of living crisis is the biggest short-term global risk while the failure of climate mitigation is the number one long-term concern, according to this Global Risks Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum. The world faces a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar. …
This paper was prepared as part of background research for the Economic and Social Survey for Asia and the Pacific 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of inclusive and resilient growth and the role of fiscal policy in ensuring a better outcome. This policy brief examines the relationship …
The COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating health, economic, and societal impacts demonstrate how unprepared the world is for such immense public health emergencies. The increasing frequency of acute infectious disease outbreaks and trends such as population aging, rising chronic-disease burdens, and climate change raise the risk of syndemics - events …
A food insecurity crisis is a health crisis, with a last- ing impact on the health of the displaced community. Health risks increase while access to healthcare is restricted. A significant increase in global and severe acute malnutrition among children in many internally displaced people (IDPs) and refugee settings has …
Loss and damage is an urgent concern, driven by the increasingly harmful effects of climate change. Communities are experiencing new types and forms of climate impact, of higher frequency and intensity, which they are not equipped to handle. These impacts compel vulnerable communities to migrate to find alternative livelihoods and …
This year’s Global Health Expenditure Report: Rising to the Pandemic's Challenges reveals how health expenditure was impacted during 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report explores: Whether the health spending patterns by governments, households, and donors changed during the first year of the COVID-19? Will 2020 patterns …
The digital divide in the access and usage of ICTs and the internet has also led to an exclusionary consequence in three sectors of utmost significance: education, health and finance. In a country plagued by high socioeconomic inequality, the digitalisation process cannot be posited as the panacea for the inherent …
Persons with disabilities face a risk of dying up to 20 years earlier than other sections of society, according to this new report by the World Health Organization. An estimated 1.3 billion people – or 16% of global population worldwide – experience a significant disability today. Persons with disabilities have …
Air pollution was the fourth-leading risk factor for premature mortality globally in 2019, causing an estimated 6.67 million deaths (HEI 2020). A large majority of such deaths were caused by ambient, outdoor air pollution due to inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (World Bank 2020). While most individuals are susceptible …
A slowdown in the progress made during the past decade against maternal and infant mortality is projected in the African region, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report finds. The Atlas of African Health Statistics 2022 assessed the nine targets related to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) on health and …
This policy brief aims to provide a review of the current progress on implementing the Kenya national action plan on AMR, identifies critical gaps, and highlights findings to accelerate further progress in the human health sector. The target audience includes all those concerned with implementing actions to combat antimicrobial resistance …
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) issued a report introducing a new global index that measures shortfalls in achievements in three areas: quality-adjusted human development; environmental sustainability; and good governance. The Development Challenges Index (DCI) adapts the Human Development Index (HDI), and shifts “from quantitative development …
A first-of-its-kind guide for businesses to measure air pollutant emissions across value chains. Developed by the CCAC, Stockholm Environment Institute, and IKEA Group, this guide enables companies to quantify the air pollutant emissions along their value chains. The guide enables businesses to create a global overview of their air pollution …
This report, presents the data on the links between water, health and development and the status of drinking water, with actionable recommendations to accelerate access to safe drinking water. The recommendations, structured around governance, financing, capacity development, data and information and innovation – the five accelerators of the UN-Water SDG …
As many as 41.5 crore people exited poverty in India during the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21, out of which two-thirds exited in the first 10 years, and one-third in the next five years, according to this global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). This year’s report, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index …
This Global status report on physical activity is WHO’s first dedicated global assessment of global progress on country implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030. It also presents an estimate of the cost to health systems of not taking action to improve physical …
This new UN report shows that women’s and children’s health has suffered globally, as the impacts of conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change converge with devastating effects on prospects for children, young people and women. Data presented in this report show a critical regression across virtually every major measure …
The Quadripartite Organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) – collaborate to drive the change and transformation required to mitigate the impact of …
This report provides an overview of levels and trends in population ageing and the situation of older persons in Asia and the Pacific. It also provides an overview of policies and good practices on population ageing from across the region. The report is being published following the Asia-Pacific Intergovernmental Meeting …
The India Discrimination Report 2022 focuses on differential access to labour market (absorption and wages),factor market (access to credit) and endowment market (access to hospitalisation) for different socio-religious and gender groups. The analysis attempts to capture the extent of identity-based discrimination explaining the gaps in access to employment and in …
