International Health Policies in Lancet today – 21 – 26 June 09

By The Editorial Team · On June 26, 2009 · Add Comment

Dear Colleagues,

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Following last week’s articles on GHIs, the Kaiser Family Foundation reviewed the press coverage of the comments on these publications. This week, the Lancet publishes three replies to the article on the evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Grant making programmes for Global Health published in May: one from the Foundation, one from a group of Malaria initiatives funded by the BMG foundation and one from two Indian researchers. In the Lancet Infectious Diseases, we selected an interesting viewpoint on the opportunity to launch the AMFm initiative now and a call to the Obama administration to deliver on its campaign promises to fight HIV/AIDS.

The Global initiative to reach health MDGs has just launched its report for 2009 with many global politician leaders endorsing the objectives of health MDGs; this includes a commitment to honour their pledges and protect the vulnerable, notably by providing them with free basic public health services.

We also share with you an analysis from CGD that emphasizes that after the evaluation of the GFATM, the hardest part of the work is yet to come.

Ban Ki Moon asked countries to maintain their investments in these times of crisis to ensure the continuation of AIDS related programmes.

Further, the editorial from the Lancet comes back on the recent resolution from the UN Human Rights Council on maternal mortality and morbidity. In a comment published today in The Lancet, Julio Frenk underlines the importance of health systems in times of financial crisis. Finally, we included a short article explaining why PAHO has trouble with its ‘Revolving Fund’ Vaccine System.

David Hercot & Wim Van Damme

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Global Health Initiatives

1. KFF – press coverage of the Lancet studies on Global Health Funding

http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2009/June/19/GH-061909-Lancet-Studies.aspx

2. Lancet – Global health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Comments from

*Tachi Yamada

*Geoffrey Targett, Pedro Alonso, Fred Binka, Frank Collins, Brian Greenwood, Janet Hemingway, Feiko ter Kuile, Osman Sankoh, David Schellenberg

*Gopal Dabade, Jacob Puliyel

The original article

3. Lancet – Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria

Roger Bate, Kimberly Hess

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(09)70158-6/fulltext

4. Lancet – Investment should follow Obama’s pledges on HIV/AIDS

Kelly Morris

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(09)70165-3/fulltext

5. Global Initiative to reach Health MDG

http://norad.no/en/Thematic+areas/Health+and+aids/Maternal%2C+child+and+women%27s+health/Global+campaign+for+the+health+MDGs

This initiative launched in 2007 has just released its 2009 report. It is interesting to see the high level commitment they managed to acquire for the initiative’s objectives. Attached the overview.

The full 2009 report 494 Kb

6. CGD Give the Global Fund a Gold Star for Their Hard-Hitting Evaluation…Now Comes the Hard Part

By April Harding

http://blogs.cgdev.org/globalhealth/2009/06/give-the-global-fund-a-gold-star-for-their-hard-hitting-evaluationnow-comes-the-hard-part.php

7. UN chief warns against cutting AIDS funding – washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603749.html

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8. Lancet – Moving forward with maternal health and human rights

The Lancet

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)61167-3/fulltext

9. Lancet – Strengthening health systems to promote security

Julio Frenk