Background: South Africa is having difficulties in rolling out the National Health Insurance(NHI) policy. There are ongoing arguments on whether the NHI will provide access to quality and equitable healthcare it is intended to and whether South Africa is ready to implement the policy. Many stakeholders believe the country needs more preparation if the policy will be successful. Ghana, on the other hand, has successfully implemented the National Health Insurance Scheme(NHIS) for over 15 years. Objective: This paper sought to explore the implementation of the NHIS in Ghana and the lessons South Africa and other low- and middle-income countries can learn from such a process. Methods: A scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Brigs Institute’s System for the Unified Management, Assessment and Review of Information (SUMARI) and Mendeley reference manager to manage the review process. Journal articles published on the NHIS in Ghana from January 2003 to December 2018 were searched from Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and Medline using the keywords: Ghana, Health, and Insurance. Results: The implementation of the NHIS has provided access to healthcare for the Ghanaian population, especially to poor and vulnerable . Despite the successful implementation of the NHIS in Ghana, the scheme is challenged with poor coverage; poor quality of care; corruption and ineffective governance; poor stakeholder participation; lack of clarity on concepts in the policy; intense political influence; and poor financing. Conclusion: The marked inequity in the South African health system makes the implementation of the NHI inevitable. The challenges experienced in the implementation of the NHIS in Ghana are not new to the South African healthcare system. South Africa must learn from the experiences of Ghana,a context that shares common socio-cultural and economic factors and disease burden,in order to successfully implement the NHI.

The seminal outcome of COP28 was the Global Stocktake (GST), which referenced transitioning for the first time among all the United Nations’ climate agreements. While the GST’s attempt at energy transition is welcomed, it is deficient. In this paper, the historical challenges of international climate policymaking and implementation has been explored. The challenges that undermined previous UN agreements will likely hinder the global stocktake. Moreover, the GST’s failure to use more forceful language could be a fatal flaw. Furthermore, the GST did not sufficiently define key terms like net zero and energy transition. Likewise, it did not give due consideration to energy justice. The GST missed the opportunity to take strategic advantage of state actors while creating an ecosystem for non-state actors to contribute to the fight against climate change. The GST should have taken advantage of the avalanche of scientific knowledge available on energy transition to mandate timely climate mitigation plans. Subsequent GSTs must proactively address the shortcomings of the first GST if the current generation, which is touted as the generation with the last chance to combat climate change, hopes to achieve the primary goal of the Paris Agreement.

Status disclosure to family and friends among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) is necessary to ensure social and material support, which are important predictors of quality of life. We examined HIV/AIDS status disclosure and its influence on quality of life (QoL) among PLWHA in a Ghanaian population. This was a health facility-based cross-sectional study of 124 PLWHA accessing antiretroviral therapy at a hospital in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Data were collected using a pretested questionnaire adopting the WHO HIV-QOL BREF. The data were analysed descriptively and inferentially using STATA 15.0. Statistical significance was set at a p value<0.05 at a 95% confidence interval. Forty-two percent of the respondents disclosed their HIV status. Social support was available for 76.9% of those who had disclosed their status. The mean QoL was highest within the physical domain (14.3±2.9), while the psychological domain indicated the lowest quality of life (11.03±3.26). Approximately 47.6% attained the mean overall QoL score (73.18). Being a male predicted lower QoL in all domains than being a female. Being a Muslim, having tertiary education, and being an urban resident significantly predicted better QoL than being a Christian, having no formal education, and being a rural resident, respectively. Respondents’ age negatively predicted overall quality of life. Although disclosing one’s HIV/AIDS status positively predicted QoL, the difference was not statistically significant. A significantly poor quality of life among patients can drag efforts by Ghana towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its associated mortality. Stakeholders in AIDS prevention and management in Ghana should employ innovative methods such as peer support to encourage status disclosure and provide education on the provision of social and emotional support for PLWHA.

Introduction: Lawyers are uniquely vulnerable to substance use and disorders due to the use of different substances mainly because of the demanding and adversarial nature of the legal profession. Substance use often begins during law school years. Aims: This study aims to examine substance use and disorders due to the use of different substances. Methods: A scoping review was adopted to collect literature from January 2000 to November 2023. The review followed the Arksey and O’Malley framework. Literature was retrieved from CINAHL Complete, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus. A total of 1,808 studies were retrieved and 14 were included for the final synthesis. The combined sample size was 16,722, comprising 15,150 lawyers and 1,572 law students. Data was extracted into a data matrix and then synthesized into the results. Results: Many lawyers and law students have experienced substance use disorders or problematic use. Alcohol and tobacco were the most used substances among them. Suicide due to substance use was also detected. Findings reveal the use of illicit substances, demographic disparities in substance use, and unprofessional behavior such as substance use during working hours. The role of support systems in battling substance use was critical among lawyers and law students. Even though few lawyers sought help for substance use related issues, treatment was effective. Conclusions: Substance use is pervasive in the legal profession. Although various health promotion and education interventions have been carried out to address this problem, the scale of the problems