Category Health & Science

Aboriginal-driven research is a must for Indigenous say in disability policy, says John Gilroy

0 Comments read Disability, Health & Science, Indigenous, NDIS
Dr John Gilroy. Photo Credit: Supplied by JG.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 04.01.2021 (Hireup): Aboriginal-owned and driven research is essential to enable Indigenous people to have a voice in disability policy, says John Gilroy, a Koori man from the Yuin nation. His lived experience of growing up with a significant speech impediment, linked to a chronic respiratory condition, has made him a passionate advocate of Aboriginal and disability rights.

He recommends the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) should invest more resources into building and up-skilling the current National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) planning workforce and the Aboriginal community-controlled services sector.

“The NDIS is built on a white fella capitalist viewpoint of purchasing services and working on for-profit market-based philosophies. This goes against the grain of how many Aboriginal people want to engage with services and supports relating to their disabilities or being carers of people with a disability,” says Gilroy, associate professor and deputy director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research at the University of Sydney.

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‘Perfect storm’ created for food collapse, panel hears

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
A vegetable seller in Hanoi, Vietnam. COVID-19 disruptions have worsened hunger and receded development gains. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 26.11.2021 (SciDev.Net): Hikes in oil prices, conflicts, emerging diseases, poor governance, and disruption in supply chains due to transportation blockages during the pandemic have come together to create a potentially devastating scenario for the global food system, a panel on food security heard.

“These have created a perfect storm for global food collapse”, Fan Shenggen, chair of the academy of global food economics and policy at China Agricultural University, told an online panel hosted by SciDev.Net and its parent organisation CABI on Thursday (25 November).

Globally, food prices are up nearly 33 per cent since the same period last year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s monthly food price index released on 2 September.

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Legal Identity for all a must

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.11.2021 (SciDev.Net): A strong, universal, responsive civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system is critical for Asia Pacific countries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that the most vulnerable have access to healthcare, immunisation and social welfare services.

This was highlighted in the Ministerial Declaration issued at the conclusion in Bangkok of the Second Ministerial Conference on CRVS (16—19 November) in Asia and the Pacific, organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Nearly 40 per cent of global deaths in 2020 were unregistered, according to a WHO report. And preliminary WHO estimates suggest that the total global excess mortality directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19 amounts to 1.2 million more than the reported deaths in 2020.

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