Before coming to Mongolia, I honestly did not know what to really expect. I had heard of the giant strides the country had made as regards the environment and green development, but still I had my doubts. As the host of World Environment Day 2013, Mongolia has put all my lingering doubts to bed. Mongolia…
Smallholder farmers play a crucial role in the fight to end hunger and ensure food security worldwide. An estimated one-third of the world’s population (about 2.5 billion people) are involved in smallholder agriculture either directly or indirectly. Smallholder (small-scale) farmers are basically those marginal and sub-marginal farmers that own or/and cultivate less than 2.0 hectare…
The Przewalski horse (Takhi) is the last remaining true wild horse species on the Earth today. Mongolia’s The horse is named after the Russian colonel Nikolai Przewalski . He was the explorer and naturalist who first described the horse in 1881. The Takhi were reintroduced into the wild in June 5th 1992. Sixteen of these…
Getting ready to come to Mongolia for World Environment Day 2013, one of my earnest wishes was to get a chance to meet the President of Mongolia, Mr Elbegdorj Tsahia; who is one of the leading voices on green development and environmental sustainability worldwide. Today my wish came true as I had the unique opportunity…
The 4th annual Ulaanbaatar city international marathon was today flagged off by current marathon world record holder and UNEP Patron for Clean Air Patrick Makau. Makau is from Kenya and he holds the world record in the marathon with a time of 2:03:38, set at the 2011 Berlin Marathon. He was named the UNEP clean…
Children’s Day is recognized on various days in many places around the world. It is a special day set aside to honour children globally. First proclaimed by the World Conference for the Well-being of Children in 1925, it was established universally in 1954 to protect children and allow them access to an education. The UN…
“If you really want to make a friend, go to someone’s house and eat with him; the people who give you their food give you their heart” Cesar Chavez
The World Health Organization member countries embraced the concept of universal health coverage as early as 2005, but only a few low-income countries have achieved the objective. This is mainly due to the numerous barriers that hamper access to needed healthcare services. Achieving equitable universal healthcare requires the provision of affordable, accessible and necessary services…
In many African countries, assess to quality healthcare is often hampered by inadequate supply as well as financial barriers to seeking care. Health policies in various countries have tried to address this problem by introducing health insurance but these have the problem of usually beginning with salaried public and private sector workers, while the workers…
At the Copenhagen Consensus in 2004 a panel of Nobel Prize winners concluded that investment in healthcare is the most productive investment the global community can make. In this regard, Africa offers the biggest challenge. Though with only 14 percent of the world’s population, it bears almost half (almost 44 percent) of the global health…
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