Latest news with #salud
National Post
2 days ago
- Business
- National Post
Dole Advances Public-Private Partnerships to Expand Access to Essential Services for Agricultural Workers
Article content Ag leader strengthens workplace program that adds social services for thousands of farm workers. Article content Article content SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — Dole (NYSE: DOLE) today announced the signing of new public-private agreements to advance its award-winning Information and Wellbeing Centers (IWCs), a workplace-based initiative pioneered by Dole designed to deliver vital public and private services directly to the workplace, improving quality of life for agricultural workers in Costa Rica's rural areas. Article content Dole's IWC model has redefined how rural workers access healthcare, social security, education, and financial tools. Article content The announcement was made during the forum 'Information and Wellbeing Centers: Public-Private Partnerships that Improve Lives,' hosted by Dole Fresh Fruit. During the event, Dole signed memorandums of understanding with two key national institutions—Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) and Banco Popular—further strengthening its commitment to inclusive development and equitable service access. Article content Launched in 2020, Dole's IWC model has redefined how rural workers access healthcare, social security, education, and financial tools. By integrating these essential services directly into the workplace, IWCs eliminate major barriers such as distance, cost, and time. Currently, IWCs directly benefit over 3,300 individuals across four of Dole's pineapple farms: Santa Fe, El Bosque, La Virgen, and Muelle, thanks to the collaboration of 38 public and private sector partners. Article content The new agreements with CCSS and Banco Popular—two pillars of Costa Rica's public infrastructure—signal an expansion of the IWC network: Article content CCSS (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social): As Costa Rica's universal public healthcare and social insurance provider, CCSS plays a central role in delivering medical and social protection across the country. Banco Popular: A state-owned bank with a social mission focused on financial inclusion and community development, serves working populations and grassroots enterprises across the country. Article content By formalizing their engagement, these institutions have committed to deepening their participation in the IWC network, advancing broader access to equitable solutions that uphold citizens' rights and promote long-term well-being. Article content 'This is a concrete example of how public-private partnerships can close gaps and generate real well-being,' said Rudy Amador, Regional Vice President of Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Communications at Dole Fresh Fruit. 'Inter-institutional coordination has been key to making the Information and Wellbeing Centers a powerful driver of inclusion.' Article content The forum convened national government leaders, business executives and international institutions to reflect on the success and scalability of the IWC model. The Aliarse Foundation, a Costa Rican NGO specializing in cross-sector partnerships, presented a case study during the event, followed by a panel discussion highlighting the social and economic benefits of collaborative development models. Article content In 2022, the IWC program received the Grand Prize for Social Responsibility in Action from the Costa Rican-American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM), recognizing its innovation and measurable impact. Article content To date, the IWC program has reached 14,947 individuals, with continued expansion planned for the years ahead. The initiative is increasingly recognized as a replicable blueprint for sustainable development. Article content The event concluded with a collective call to action: when the public sector, private enterprise, and civil society work together with intention, the result is a more just and connected society—one where access to essential services is not a privilege, but a right realized. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content Article content
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Argentine Government's War On Inflation Is Also A War On Care
Dishing out food at a protest in front of Argentina's new Ministry of Human Capital, which has ... More refused to supply food to community kitchens. (Photo by Nicolas Suarez) Marina Joski has a lot on her plate. The mother of three (and grandmother of one) also cares for her own mother. As for paid work, Joski is a health promoter—someone who provides information and support about health. A leader of the union UTEP, she coordinates community health spaces throughout Argentina. But she's become even busier since Argentine president Javier Milei started imposing swinging cuts across the social sector in late 2023. Joski's salary shrank. Her family has drastically cut down on the amount of meat they eat. Joski has had to take on three additional jobs. She calls this a 'strategy of multiple employment: dedicating a little less time to what we love to do.' Added to this is the extra workload of the primary job she loves, because the government has also ended a number of medicine subsidies and public healthcare programs. Joski isn't the only one now working four jobs. Political scientist Verónica Gago is currently teaching at four public universities, including the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of San Martín. Her salary quickly dropped in purchasing power after Milei took office and devalued the Argentine peso by over 50%. 'The gap between prices and salaries is really dramatic,' Gago reports. 'We have European prices for food, for example.' People like Joski, who work with some of Argentina's neediest, have had to stretch their diminishing resources to painful lengths. Community kitchens have been selling ice cubes, and making meals of just paprika in hot water, as they struggle to stay open and keep people fed. Another early action of Milei's government was to stop distribution of food to community kitchens. This 'economic violence' is only part of the story. It's been accompanied by what Joski calls 'symbolic violence': a daily litany of insults, harassment, and accusations about community-based and public-sector work. Critics in an increasingly polarized political environment claim that community workers, health promoters, public researchers, and others are wasteful or anti-individual. For people like Joski, it's hard to be considered a public enemy for trying to help others. The symbolic violence especially targets women and non-binary people. One way is through the dismantling of care policies: those that help keep people free from hunger, illness, and violence. It is largely women who provide such care, and often women and girls who need this social support because of financial vulnerability and other reasons. According to the Center for Legal and Social Studies, a Buenos Aires-based human rights organization, only 5 out of 50 care policies now remain in place in Argentina. Meanwhile, the income gap between men and women has risen from 21% to 26.3% in one year. The Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity was one of nine ministries shuttered as Milei razed the government. And the federal government has stopped distributing medication abortion, leaving it up to the provinces. This has led to soaring prices and uneven availability. 'Historically the national government was the one that purchased inputs at very good prices in terms of cost and efficiency,' de la Vega explains. 'The provinces today are not in a position to address this from one year to the next, when at the same time all the resources that came from the national government in all spheres have been reduced.' The diminution of support for reproductive health has emboldened harassers of women seeking abortions, as well as people calling for an end to the hard-fought right to abortion altogether. The new government's policies have created a double bind on abortion that makes no one happy: the policies have made it harder for women to end pregnancies, but have also led to more abortions because more women cannot afford to have children. The symbolic and economic violence has also translated into a greater tolerance for physical violence. The government 'has argued that there is no specific violence against women and girls, that gender-based violence doesn't exist,' de la Vega explains. This worldview has helped justify cuts to services that especially helped victims of gender-based violence, such as major layoffs at a helpline and reductions to a program that supported women seeking to escape violent situations. Above all, de la Vega says, 'the agencies that functioned to prevent and punish gender violence have been eliminated.' These vanished services are part of what Gago describes as 'state anti-feminism.' However, one rare victory amidst the battering of women's rights has been the retention of femicide as a specific category in the Penal Code. Argentina's president and justice minister had called for this to be removed. But following enormous protests, officials have stopped threatening to eliminate femicide as a specific crime. In 2024, 295 women and girls were recorded as being killed by men for gender-related reasons. Protesters with the Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) movement hold the state responsible for femicide ... More (Photo by) To be fair, Milei's policies have been popular with some sectors. Inflation is down overall according to official sources (although the methodology is disputed). Inflation has diminished so much that the industrial gas company AirLiquide excluded Argentina from some Q1 2025 sales reporting, so as not to distort the global results. Many voters in Argentina believed that firm action was needed to correct course on Argentina's deeply unstable economy; now, other leaders in Latin America, Europe, and the U.S. are seeking to copy Milei's chainsaw approach to public spending. However, poverty and household debt have risen instead. This includes child poverty, which was already high and climbed further in the first few months of Milei's presidency. Thousands of people have lost jobs, wages, and pension pots. The pension losses have occurred through the cutting of an exemption that allowed people to retire without having contributed to social security for 30 years. This exemption enabled informal workers and women who had had career gaps due to childrearing, for instance, to retire with some security. Health has also deteriorated. Joski says, 'between the lack of medication delivery and malnutrition, there's an overdose of' carbohydrates and fats instead of protein. This has led to more cases of stroke, high blood pressure, and diabetes. 'And at the same time they're cutting off medication distribution, they've also defunded all mental health services that working-class people could have access to,' she reports. So as daily life has gotten tougher, the ability to cope has also dwindled. Substance abuse, mental health problems, and suicides are rising in poor neighborhoods, according to Joski. Some of the painful cuts to public spending have been in the interest of securing a new $20-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approved in April and with an initial review planned for June. Past IMF-driven austerity measures in Argentina, including the fund's biggest ever loan in 2018, have been deeply unpopular. Yet the IMF expects Argentina to maintain their relationship on its current terms. In April, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva controversially said, 'the country is going to go to elections, as you know, in October. And it is very important that they do not derail the will for change. So far, we do not see that.' The IMF declined to respond to specific questions, referring instead to a staff report that praises the Argentine authorities' work to stabilize and grow the economy. This report projects that public debt, as a percentage of GDP, will dramatically shrink from 85.3% in 2024 to 38.2% in 2035. As of January, Argentina owed $40.6 billion to the IMF alone. In 2025, 18.6% of that amount is expected to go to paying off IMF debt. No one disputes that decisive action was needed to address Argentina's staggering inflation. But Gago doesn't think that the current government's actions will ultimately resolve inflation, if it remains dependent on external debt that needs to be repaid in dollars, and does not address structural elements like rising housing prices. Indeed, the real estate sector has been one of the winners of the government's deregulation push, Gago says. In this 'dual economy,' there is polarization between the ultra-rich and those who are staying or becoming poor. Wealth is increasingly being transferred from workers to large corporations. 'Every day we lose rights, and there's less and less budget to implement public policy,' de la Vega warns.
Medscape
27-05-2025
- Business
- Medscape
Argentina to Review Fast-track Authorization of Costly Drugs
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina's government said on Monday that it will review the use of fast-track authorizations for high cost drugs, as well as requiring future vaccine trials to include a placebo test group, as part of a broader revision of its healthcare policy. "The Ministry of Health will propose to discuss the use of this type of authorization for very high-cost drugs, especially those intended for children and rare diseases," the government said in a statement. "Innovation cannot justify hasty decisions without solid evidence." It said it would open technical discussions on approval criteria that prioritize patient safety and system sustainability. The government also said vaccines would be subject to clinical studies with a placebo group "as a minimum standard." "To review is not to deny," it added, saying the approach aimed to improve scientific rigor and boost public confidence. (Reporting by Lucila Sigal and Peter Henderson; Editing by Kylie Madry) Reuters Health Information © 2025 Reuters Ltd.
Malay Mail
27-05-2025
- Malay Mail
Justice or show? Maradona death trial at risk of collapse over judge's role; lawyer claims she was more like an ‘actress'
SAN ISIDRO (Argentina), May 27 — More than two months after it started, the trial of seven Argentine health professionals accused in the death of football legend Diego Maradona hangs in the balance over questions about a judge's impartiality. The trial was suspended last week after defense lawyers said the judge's involvement in a documentary related to the case constituted a possible breach of her duty, influence peddling and even bribery. The possible removal of Julieta Makintach, one of three judges presiding over the case, risks nullifying the proceedings. Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at age 60, while recovering at home from brain surgery for a blood clot after decades battling cocaine and alcohol addictions. He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema two weeks after going under the knife, and was found dead in bed by his day nurse. Maradona's medical team is on trial in the Buenos Aires suburb of San Isidro over the conditions of his convalescence at a private home. Prosecutors have described the football icon's care in his last days as grossly negligent. The trial is set to reconvene Tuesday, where at least one lawyer is expected to ask for Makintach's recusal. If she is removed from the case, it must be determined whether she can simply be replaced, or whether the trial must start afresh with a new panel of judges. 'This is a scandal of such magnitude that the whole world is talking about Argentine justice as the worst example,' Fernando Burlando, a lawyer for Maradona's daughters, told local radio last week. At issue is the alleged use of cameras in the courtroom in violation of a ban on filming the trial. Makintach had denied participating in or authorizing any filming, but footage shared in Argentine media over the weekend shows her allegedly being interviewed by a film crew on the eve of the trial starting. 'Compromised' A producer, in a deposition seen by AFP, said they were filming a documentary about Makintach, as 'a judge and a woman,' but not the trial itself. Burlando rejected the explanation and said he would ask for Makintach's recusal on Tuesday. 'She did not act like a judge but like an actress,' he charged. 'Everyone now feels that this (trial) is compromised,' added Mario Baudry, the lawyer for Maradona's ex-partner Veronica Ojeda. 'It's healthiest to start over from scratch,' he added. The defendants risk prison terms between eight and 25 years if convicted of 'homicide with possible intent' – pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to death. The case so far has focused on the decision by Maradona's doctors to allow him to recuperate at home with minimal supervision and medical equipment, instead of a medical facility. In her testimony, Maradona's daughter Gianinna said her father's carers had kept him in 'a dark, ugly and lonely' place and claimed they seemed more interested in money than his welfare. — AFP
Reuters
26-05-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Argentina to review use of fast-track authorizations for costly drugs
BUENOS AIRES, May 26 (Reuters) - Argentina's government said on Monday that it will review the use of fast-track authorizations for high cost drugs, as well as requiring future vaccine trials to include a placebo test group, as part of a broader revision of its healthcare policy. "The Ministry of Health will propose to discuss the use of this type of authorization for very high-cost drugs, especially those intended for children and rare diseases," the government said in a statement. "Innovation cannot justify hasty decisions without solid evidence." It said it would open technical discussions on approval criteria that prioritize patient safety and system sustainability. The government also said vaccines would be subject to clinical studies with a placebo group "as a minimum standard." "To review is not to deny," it added, saying the approach aimed to improve scientific rigor and boost public confidence.
