By far the greatest challenge related to undermining of internal sovereignty in the settled areas of NWFP and the rapidly fading writ of the government in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Although a military operation appears to have quelled the insurgency in some parts for now, these areas still need to be brought fully under state control. In addition, the largest ever displace...

“The term ‘holistic’ refers to my conviction that what we are concerned with here is the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”. . . . “I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with our rough and ready understanding of the physical world might natur...

Systems engineering is a discipline with methods and techniques to address complex problems. We want to study how Systems Engineering methods can help to address today’s grand challenges, such as the energy problem. The first step is problem definition which aims at articulating the problem in its context as clearly as possible. Humanity will have to cope with the energy problem, one of the mos...

This article charts the historical development of the discipline of global mental health, whose goal is to improve access to mental health care and reduce inequalities in mental health outcomes between and within nations. The article begins with an overview of the contribution of four scientific foundations toward the discipline's core agenda: to scale up services for people with mental disorde...

s/mental-health-facing-the-challenges,building-solutions (21 August 2011, date last

Global Mental Health (GMH) appears as a new Open Access journal, just as 'Global Mental Health' emerges as a new field. It is necessary, and timely: current international survey data suggest that mental illness is a key driver of population wellbeing, with evidence suggesting that mental healthcare might be a more cost-effective investment than physical healthcare for improving that outcome (He...

This article summarises the work being undertaken by the World Health Organisation Pacific Islands Mental Health Network (PIMHnet) since its inception in 2006. The article also outlines the mental health issues that present particular challenges in the Pacific region, and the innovative approaches that have been taken to address those issues, with the goal of improving mental health throughout ...