The Expo Blog is a space for posts on the history, themes, legacies and experience of Expos. It includes articles from the BIE and external contributors.
Accessing mental health services can be a major challenge, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, where more than 65 million people suffer from mental health issues. Care providers are stretched thin, with as few as one psychiatrist per 100,000 people in the MENA region, while social stigma, discrimination and neglect often prevent people from attending psychotherapy clinics or seeking help. With two-thirds of global population not seeking treatment because of these challenges, and suicide the second-highest cause of death among young people, the need for mental health services is greater than ever.
The impact of climate change, infrastructure projects and increased population means that 2 billion people around the world are expected to be vulnerable to flood disaster by 2050. While addressing the causes of flooding is essential, it is also imperative to improve flood resilience in the most affected areas, with people’s lives and livelihoods increasingly threatened by intense and unpredictable weather events.
Through containment, adapting to live with the virus and last but not least the vaccine rollout, it is now possible to envisage a sense of normality in the global economy. With this perspective, Expo 2020 Dubai is set to be the first event of its scale to take place, serving to re-kickstart the global meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) industry as well as international tourism.
Education is perhaps the most effective way to pull children out of poverty and addressing social problems, yet 260 million children around the world are out of school. This is why a group of concerned citizens in Pakistan created The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a non-government organisation aimed at improving access to education as a way of reducing social barriers and making students become agents of positive change.
Climate change, unsustainable farming practices and deforestation not only pose serious challenges for biodiversity and the protection of nature, but in many places also threaten the livelihoods of indigenous communities.
