Legislating for Good Governance in the Pharmaceutical Sector through UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Compliance.

Pharmaceutical sector corruption undermines patient access to medicines by diverting public funds for private gain and exacerbating health inequities. This paper presents an analysis of UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) compliance in seven countries and examines how full UNCAC adoption may reduce corruption risks within four key pharmaceutical decision-making points: product approval, formulary selection, procurement, and dispensing. Countries were selected based on their participation in the Medicines Transparency Alliance and the WHO Good Governance for Medicines Programme. Each country's domestic anti-corruption laws and policies were catalogued and analysed to evaluate their implementation of select UNCAC Articles relevant to the pharmaceutical sector. Countries displayed high compliance with UNCAC provisions on procurement and the recognition of most public sector corruption offences. However, several countries do not penalise private sector bribery or provide statutory protection to whistleblowers or witnesses in corruption proceedings, suggesting that private sector pharmaceutical dispensing may be a decision-making point particularly vulnerable to corruption. Fully implementing the UNCAC is a meaningful first step that countries can take reduce pharmaceutical sector corruption. However, without broader commitment to cultures of transparency and institutional integrity, corruption legislation alone is likely insufficient to ensure long-term, sustainable pharmaceutical sector good governance.

Potentially morally injurious experiences and associated factors among Dutch UN peacekeepers: a latent class analysis.

Background: During peacekeeping missions, military personnel may be involved in or exposed to potentially morally injurious experiences (PMIEs), such as an inability to intervene due to a limited mandate. While exposure to such morally transgressive events has been shown to lead to moral injury in combat veterans, research on moral injury in peacekeepers is limited.Objective: We aimed to determine patterns of exposure to PMIEs and associated outcome- and exposure-related factors among Dutch peacekeepers stationed in the former Yugoslavia during the Srebrenica genocide.Method: Self-report data were collected among Dutchbat III veterans (N = 431). We used Latent Class Analysis to identify subgroups of PMIE exposure as assessed by the Moral Injury Scale-Military version. We investigated whether deployment location, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), posttraumatic growth, resilience, and quality of life differentiated between latent classes.Results: The analysis identified a three-class solution: a high exposure class (n = 79), a moderate exposure class (n = 261), and a betrayal and powerlessness-only class (n = 135). More PMIE exposure was associated with deployment location and higher odds of having probable PTSD. PMIE exposure was not associated with posttraumatic growth. Resilience and quality of life were excluded from analyses due to high correlations with PTSD.Conclusions: Peacekeepers may experience varying levels of PMIE exposure, with more exposure being associated with worse outcomes 25 years later. Although no causal relationship may be assumed, the results emphasize the importance of better understanding PMIEs within peacekeeping.

Peacekeeping veterans reported different patterns of exposure to potentially morally injurious experiences: high exposure, moderate exposure, or experiences of betrayal and powerlessness only.Deployment location predicted the pattern of exposure.More exposure was associated with worse psychological outcomes 25 years later.

Alternate Edens: History, Evolution, and Origins in UNESCO's Cultural and Scientific History of Mankind.

In 1963, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published the first volume of its long-awaited cultural and scientific history of mankind. First announced in 1948, the History of Mankind was envisioned as a comprehensive, universal human history, from the evolution of Homo sapiens to the middle of the twentieth century. This article uses editorial conflicts over the site of the cradle of the human species to explore the position of scientific knowledge in world history writing and to examine tensions between different national traditions of expertise at a moment of political and scientific transition.

ICPD at 30 - What African countries need to do better.

In September 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), that gave birth to the doctrine of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), was held in Cairo, Egypt1. This year is the 30th year following the conference. Given that a total of 179 governments attended the ICPD and agreed to the Platform for Action for promoting and improving sexual and reproductive health and rights, it is appropriate to take stock of changes, expectations, and commitments that have occurred as a result of actions taken by governments. The 57th session of the Commission on Population and Development will be held in April 2024 and will be dedicated to assessing the status of sexual and reproductive health and rights 30 years after Cairo. Additional post-30years events will take place in Geneva, Switzerland in October 19-20, 2024 which are intended to enable the global community to take a look backwards identify ways in which the ICPD processes have influenced global development.

En septembre 1994, la Conférence internationale sur la population et le développement (CIPD), qui a donné naissance à la doctrine de la santé et des droits sexuels et reproductifs (SDSR), s'est tenue au Caire, en Égypte1. Cette année marque la 30e année après la conférence. Étant donné qu'un total de 179 gouvernements ont participé à la CIPD et ont accepté le Programme d'action pour promouvoir et améliorer la santé et les droits sexuels et reproductifs, il convient de faire le point sur les changements, les attentes et les engagements qui se sont produits à la suite des mesures prises. par les gouvernements. La 57e session de la Commission sur la population et le développement se tiendra en avril 2024 et sera consacrée à l'évaluation de l'état de la santé et des droits sexuels et reproductifs 30 ans après. D'autres événements post-30 ans auront lieu à Genève, en Suisse, les 19 et 20 octobre 2024, destinés à permettre à la communauté mondiale de jeter un regard en arrière et en avant pour identifier la manière dont les processus de la CIPD ont influencé le développement mondial.

UN peacekeeper health and risk factors --- a systematic scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Conflicts, natural disasters, and complex emergencies present substantial health challenges to United Nations (UN) peacekeepers deployed in mission areas. This scoping review aims at summarizing previous research on the health of UN peacekeepers and identifies issues for further investigation. METHODS: Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for Scoping Reviews, we systematically searched Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for English and Chinese literature published from April 1997 to November 2023. A data charting form was developed by two reviewers to extract relevant themes and provided narrative descriptions. RESULTS: We screened 1079 de-duplicated records and included 143 studies in this scoping review. There were 112 studies on the health status of UN peacekeepers, with more than half on mental health problems such as stress and anxiety. Many studies explored the health status of UN peacekeepers in African countries deployed from mainly U.S., Canada, U.K., China, Australia and Norway. There were 39 studies on the health risk factors of UN peacekeepers, including natural environmental, social environmental, psychological, behavioral lifestyle, biological factors and health service factors. There were 62 articles on the health protection of UN peacekeepers, mainly based on previous deployment experience, with a lack of theoretical guidance from global health perspectives. This scoping review found that health problems of UN peacekeepers are complicated, and whose impacts are cross-border. Social environmental factors were explored the most among health risk factors. Disease prevention measures, medical and health measures, and psychosocial measures were the main health protection for UN peacekeepers. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review highlighted that health problems of UN peacekeepers were typical global health issues with complicated and cross-border health risk factors. Therefore, comprehensive strategies could be taken from global health perspectives, including multi-phases (before-deployment, during-deployment, and post-deployment), multi-disciplines (public health, medicine, politics, health diplomacy, and others), and multi-levels (the UN, host countries, troop-contributing countries, the UN peacekeeping team, and UN peacekeepers).

ChatGPT: Literate or intelligent about UN sustainable development goals?

Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are progressively transforming numerous sectors, demonstrating a capacity to impact human life dramatically. This research seeks to evaluate the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) literacy of ChatGPT, which is crucial for diverse stakeholders involved in SDG-related policies. Experimental outcomes from two widely used Sustainability Assessment tests-the UN SDG Fitness Test and Sustainability Literacy Test (SULITEST) - suggest that ChatGPT exhibits high SDG literacy, yet its comprehensive SDG intelligence needs further exploration. The Fitness Test gauges eight vital competencies across introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels. Accurate mapping of these to the test questions is essential for partial evaluation of SDG intelligence. To assess SDG intelligence, the questions from both tests were mapped to 17 SDGs and eight cross-cutting SDG core competencies, but both test questionnaires were found to be insufficient. SULITEST could satisfactorily map only 5 out of 8 competencies, whereas the Fitness Test managed to map 6 out of 8. Regarding the coverage of the Fitness Test and SULITEST, their mapping to the 17 SDGs, both tests fell short. Most SDGs were underrepresented in both instruments, with certain SDGs not represented at all. Consequently, both tools proved ineffective in assessing SDG intelligence through SDG coverage. The study recommends future versions of ChatGPT to enhance competencies such as collaboration, critical thinking, systems thinking, and others to achieve the SDGs. It concludes that while AI models like ChatGPT hold considerable potential in sustainable development, their usage must be approached carefully, considering current limitations and ethical implications.

Agrochemical-free genetically modified and genome-edited crops: Towards achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals and a 'greener' green revolution.

Sustainable farming on ever-shrinking agricultural land and declining water resources for the growing human population is one of the greatest environmental and food security challenges of the 21st century. Conventional, age-old organic farming practices alone, and foods based on costly cellular agriculture, do not have the potential to be upscaled to meet the food supply challenges for feeding large populations. Additionally, agricultural practices relying on chemical inputs have a well-documented detrimental impact on human health and the environment. As the available farming methods have reached their productivity limits, new approaches to agriculture, combining friendly, age-old farming practices with modern technologies that exclude chemical interventions, are necessary to address the food production challenges. Growing genetically modified (GM) crops without chemical inputs can allow agricultural intensification with reduced adverse health and environmental impacts. Additionally, integrating high-value pleiotropic genes in their genetic improvement coupled with the use of modern agricultural technologies, like robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), will further improve productivity. Such 'organic-GM' crops will offer consumers healthy, agrochemical-free GM produce. We believe these agricultural practices will lead to the beginning of a potentially new chemical-free GM agricultural revolution in the era of Agriculture 4.0 and help meet the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Furthermore, given the advancement in the genome editing (GE) toolbox, we ought to develop a new category of 'trait-reversible GM crops' to avert the fears of those who believe in ecological damage by GM crops. Thus, in this article, we advocate farming with no or minimal chemical use by combining chemical-free organic farming with the existing biofortified and multiple stress tolerant GM crops, while focusing on the development of novel 'biofertilizer-responsive GE crops' and 'trait-reversible GE crops' for the future.

Health facility assessment of small and sick newborn care in low- and middle-income countries: systematic tool development and operationalisation with NEST360 and UNICEF.

BACKGROUND: Each year an estimated 2.3 million newborns die in the first 28 days of life. Most of these deaths are preventable, and high-quality neonatal care is fundamental for surviving and thriving. Service readiness is used to assess the capacity of hospitals to provide care, but current health facility assessment (HFA) tools do not fully evaluate inpatient small and sick newborn care (SSNC). METHODS: Health systems ingredients for SSNC were identified from international guidelines, notably World Health Organization (WHO), and other standards for SSNC. Existing global and national service readiness tools were identified and mapped against this ingredients list. A novel HFA tool was co-designed according to a priori considerations determined by policymakers from four African governments, including that the HFA be completed in one day and assess readiness across the health system. The tool was reviewed by > 150 global experts, and refined and operationalised in 64 hospitals in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania between September 2019 and March 2021. RESULTS: Eight hundred and sixty-six key health systems ingredients for service readiness for inpatient SSNC were identified and mapped against four global and eight national tools measuring SSNC service readiness. Tools revealed major content gaps particularly for devices and consumables, care guidelines, and facility infrastructure, with a mean of 13.2% (n = 866, range 2.2-34.4%) of ingredients included. Two tools covered 32.7% and 34.4% (n = 866) of ingredients and were used as inputs for the new HFA tool, which included ten modules organised by adapted WHO health system building blocks, including: infrastructure, pharmacy and laboratory, medical devices and supplies, biomedical technician workshop, human resources, information systems, leadership and governance, family-centred care, and infection prevention and control. This HFA tool can be conducted at a hospital by seven assessors in one day and has been used in 64 hospitals in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania. CONCLUSION: This HFA tool is available open-access to adapt for use to comprehensively measure service readiness for level-2 SSNC, including respiratory support. The resulting facility-level data enable comparable tracking for Every Newborn Action Plan coverage target four within and between countries, identifying facility and national-level health systems gaps for action.