Why I think it is time for another Good News Dump. I mean why not, it won't hurt, and might help. Anywho if you wish not to read, and remain uninspired, feel free to filter this hashtag. Listen I understand doom is so comforting.
Heart disease is the top cause of death in the United States, but progress is being made, and millions of lives are being saved. The American Heart Association just released its new report showing that the country has cut heart disease death rates by 70% since 1950 and stroke death rates by nearly a third since 1998.
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epdf/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001209
A ton of good news on malaria this week. Cameroon and Burkina Faso have begun their rollouts of the RTS vaccine (nearly 10,000 children have already been vaccinated), Benin just took delivery of 215,900 doses, Cambodia has announced that it's on track for malaria elimination by 2025, and another trial of the R21 vaccine in four African countries has shown that it's safe and extremely effective.
https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/relief-rtss-malaria-vaccine-rollout-set-begin-burkina-faso
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02511-4/fulltext
After several months of intense negotiations, the EU has reached a historic agreement on a new law that addresses gender-based violence, female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and online harassment across all member states. 'Today, we take the first step towards making Europe the first continent in the world to eradicate violence against women.'
https://www.nadja.co/2024/02/09/eu-reaches-first-ever-agreement-to-eliminate-violence-against-women
France’s lower house of parliament has overwhelmingly approved a measure to enshrine abortion as a 'guaranteed freedom' in the constitution. 'Tonight, the assembly didn’t miss its rendezvous with the history of women and with history in general.'
Cambodia has spent $1.4 billion to help more than 1.43 million families and 360,000 pregnant women since 2019. It's made a big difference—the UNDP says the poverty rate declined to 16.6% in 2022 from 36.7% in 2014, and the number of poor people was halved from 5.6 million to 2.8 million.
The Asian Development Bank has approved a $419.6 million loan to expand access to sanitation in the cities of Mataram, Pontianak, and Semarang. The project will strengthen sanitation systems for approximately 2.5 million people, based on an inclusive sanitation principle which aims to ensure access citywide.
https://www.adb.org/news/adb-strengthens-sanitation-system-indonesia-419-million-loan
Last year, Ghana doubled cash benefits for its poorest households and is set to do so again in 2024, increasing coverage to 12% of household consumption. The recent budget also includes a big boost for school meal programs, as well as a 40% increase for the National Health Insurance Authority to cover medical claims, essential medicines, and vaccines for the most vulnerable.
In 2019, India launched a national program to combat air pollution in 131 cities. Since then around half of the cities for which data are available have seen improvements. This includes Delhi, which saw a 5.9% decline in PM2.5 levels from 2019 to 2023, Bengaluru (2%), Hyderabad (7%), Kolkata (16.9%), Patna (25.2%), Chennai (33.4%), and Lucknow (41.2%).
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The first endometriosis drug in four decades is now on the horizon. It looks like a safe and effective dengue vaccine is imminent too.
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Despite a national spike in homelessness, some regions in the United States are finding solutions.
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By the time you read this, there's a good chance Greece might have legalized same-sex marriage.
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Zimbabwe has abolished the death penalty, a practice introduced by British colonial administrators.
https://www.africanews.com/2024/02/07/zimbabwe-abolishes-inherited-colonial-death-penalty
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A sex education bus has reached over 5,000 teens in Honduras, and it's just getting started.
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95,000 people just got access to clean drinking water in Mauritania.
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The adult literacy rate in Tanzania has risen to 83% from 78.1% in the past decade.
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Poverty is plummeting in Bangladesh, thanks to a much better social safety net.
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Ecuador's highest court has decriminalised euthanasia.
https://www.dw.com/en/ecuador-court-decriminalizes-euthanasia-in-landmark-ruling/a-68198351
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On Monday, for the first time on Polish TV, and after eight years of a far-right government, LGBT+ activists appeared on a live broadcast in which the interviewer began by apologizing after years of bigotry. In the 1980s, Poland led the world out of its totalitarian Soviet nightmare, and in the 2020s, it might just show us the way again.