Childhood obesity is on the rise across the world. Between 1975 and 2016, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children has increased from 4% to 18% globally.1 The increase is observed almost everywhere (low- and middle-income countries, and high-income countries), particularly within urban area.2 In 2016, more than 340 million children and adolescents (5-19 […]
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Press Conference: Taxation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
The Ghanaian Parliament in December, 2022, tabled, debated, voted, and approved a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other health-harming commodities and products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. The past couple of months, I have presented my take on this policy intervention. Last week, I shared with you a […]
Read MorePress Release: Taxation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
The Ghanaian Parliament on December 20, 2022, tabled, debated, voted, and approved (for the second time) a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. Over the past four weeks, I have presented my take on this policy intervention. In my most recent post, […]
Read MorePosition Statement “Our Take”
The Ghanaian Parliament on December 20, 2022, tabled, debated, voted, and approved (for the second time) a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. Over the past four weeks, I have presented my take on this policy intervention. In my most recent post, […]
Read MoreMy Take on Ghana’s Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022: [Part IV]
The Ghanaian Parliament on December 20, 2022 debated, voted, and approved a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. Over the past three weeks, I have presented my take on this policy intervention – via this four-part article. In this concluding section of […]
Read MoreMy Take on Ghana’s Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022: [Part III]
The Ghanaian Parliament on December 20, 2022 debated, voted, and approved a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. In this series, I present my take on this policy intervention. In Part II, I restated some of the concerns and requests that a […]
Read MoreMy Take on Ghana’s Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022: [Part II]
The Ghanaian Parliament on December 20, 2022 debated, voted, and approved a Bill to tax Sugar-Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Ghana Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. In this series, I present my take on this policy intervention. In Part I, I outlined the health harms of SSBs and provided a […]
Read MoreMy Take on Ghana’s Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022: [Part I]
The Ghanaian Parliament has recently debated, voted, and approved a Bill to tax Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) and other products – as per the Excise Duty Amendment Bill, 2022. My take is: The government and the people of Ghana should not relent, they should get it done to Promote, Protect and Guarantee the Health of […]
Read MoreCOVID-19 immunity licensing in Africa: practical, socio-cultural, and ethical bottlenecks
Author: Amos Laar, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon. E-mail: alaar@ug.edu.gh Twitter: @alaar In this commentary published by The Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Ethics Network (PHEPREN), Professor Laar asks the pertinent question: If in future we have good data to support COVID-19 Immunity Passports, would […]
Read MoreProtecting, promoting, and assuring pandemic ethics is everyone’s responsibility, not just the government’s
Amos Laar, Ph.D. Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra Ghana. E-mail alaar@ug.edu.gh In December 2019, a few cases of a severe form of viral pneumonia were reported from Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China. The illness was identified as a novel Coronavirus – severe acute respiratory syndrome […]
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