On June 24, 2000, the WHO released a report that assessed the world's health-care systems based on an overall index of performance.1 The report had an immediate and enormous impact and was discussed on the front page of almost every major newspaper in the western world and on the broadcast news. The WHO, the health agency of the United Nations (UN), had assessed health-care systems around the w...

I feel privileged to have this opportunity to deliver a lecture in honour of Amilcar Herrera. Prof Herrera’s “Latin American World Model” shows how we can shape our future in such a manner that it leads to lasting human happiness and security. It has been an act of vision on the part of the United Nations University and the Government of the Netherlands to have established this Institute for Ne...

The primary goals of land-use planning are enunciated. A plea is made for consideration of the total biosphere and not just its separate components. The environmental impact statement process is reviewed and some suggestions made for its strengthening. Moves for international adoption of this process are noted, as well as the concept of eco-development currently under examination by UN agencies.

The entry into force of the UN Persistent Organic Pollutants Convention (POPs Convention) in May 2004 means that increasing attention will be paid to monitoring of breastmilk as an indicator of levels of chemical residues in the human body. And in June 2004, the Ministers and Representatives of Member States in the European Region of WHO responsible for health and the environment stated that "M...

Though many Iraqis are unhappy with the presence of US-led forces, most express strong support for various forms of international assistance, including the presence of foreign security forces, UN (rather than US) leadership on reconstruction, an international conference of global and regional players to address Iraq's needs, engagement by the Arab League and a variety of forms of nonmilitary US...

Urbanization is defined by the United Nations as the movement of people from rural to urban areas, whose population is projected to amount to half of the world’s population in 2008, rising to about 60% in 2030. As an increasingly higher number of people leave farms and villages to live in cities particularly in the developing countries, urban centres will grow at a rate previously unseen in man...