Dear Colleagues,
This week a few global health voices zoomed in on the question whether
Neighbors
Finally, in Africa, some encouraging news came from Uganda. It appears funding caps from PEPFAR have been lifted recently. Maybe the campaign by MSF, the NYT and many others has paid off? Or is this good news also linked to the July bombings in
Enjoy your reading.
Global Health
1. JAMA – The president’s global health initiative
Lawrence O. Gostin; http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/304/7/789
A recent commentary in JAMA by Gostin discusses Obama’s GHI. He worries global health reform will turn out illusory. That would be a mistake, he contends, as global health is vital to US national interests.
2. Globalization and health – Framing health and foreign policy: lessons for global health diplomacy
Ronald Labonte & Michelle Gagnon; http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/6/1/14
Labonte & Gagnon review the arguments for health in foreign policy that inform global health diplomacy. These are organized into six policy frames: security, development, global public goods, trade, human rights and ethical/moral reasoning. They focus in their analysis on the goal of improving global health equity. Their conclusion: “most states, even when committed to health as a foreign policy goal, still make decisions primarily on the basis of the ‘high politics’ of national security and economic material interests. Development, human rights and ethical/moral arguments for global health assistance, the traditional ‘low politics’ of foreign policy, are present in discourse but do not appear to dominate practice.”
3. HPP – The evolution, etiology and eventualities of the global health security regime
Steven J Hoffman; http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/czq037
Hoffman sketches four historical periods of global health security governance. The final regime, characterized by the hegemonic leadership of the WHO, is now challenged by globalization, changing diplomacy, new tools, and possible shocks and vulnerabilities. The author elaborated four possible future configurations of power.
4. FP – China & the Global Fund: a rebuttal
Drew Thompson And Jia Ping ; http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/20/dollar_diplomacy_can_be_healthy_for_china
In a Foreign Policy viewpoint, intended as a rebuttal to an earlier piece by Jack Chow, Thompson and Ping argue that the Global Fund should continue to support
5. GHP – Should China Continue to Receive Aid?
Devi Sridhar; http://www.globalhealthpolicy.net/?p=205
In a blog post, Sridhar comments on Thompson and
6. Irin – UGANDA : Optimism as PEPFAR increases funding
http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90288
PEPFAR committed to increase its support of
7. Lancet – Health and philanthropy—the tobacco connection
Simon Chapman;http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61036-7/fulltext
Bill Gates should reconsider his philanthropy cooperation with Carlos Slim, if he is serious about his recently embraced tobacco-control agenda.
8. HPP – The World Health Report 2000: expanding the horizon of health system performance
Julio Frenk; http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/5/343
Frenk revisits the World Health Report 2000, ten years after its launch. He sees a number of conceptual contributions of the report. He also summarizes some of the key concerns expressed by governments and the rationale for the WHO leadership to move ahead with this exercise.
9. HPP – WHR 2000 to WHR 2010: what progress in health care financing?
Di McIntyre; http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/5/349
In another HP&P Comment that looks back on the WHR 2000, McIntyre focuses on some of the conceptual frameworks and guidance on directions to take to boost health systems performance, notably with respect to the issue of health care financing. Plenty of challenges remain.
Access
10. AJPH – Innovative Approaches to Reducing Financial Barriers to Obstetric Care in Low-Income Countries
Richard et al. explore innovative approaches to reducing financial barriers to obstetric care in low-income countries, and draw some lessons from 8 case studies.
MDG
11. CGD – Who Are the MDG Trailblazers? A New MDG Progress Index – Working Paper 222
Benjamin Leo and Julia Barmeier; http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1424377
A CGD working paper introduces an MDG progress index to assess the extent to which countries are on or off track toward MDG targets. They come to interesting conclusions, for example on the better than usually acknowledged performance of quite a few sub-Saharan African countries. Laggards seem to be countries devastated by conflict over the last decades.
12. IPS – Gender Equality Goals Miss the Mark, Women’s Groups Say
Hannah Rubenstein; http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52589
A month ahead of the MDG+ summit, some women’s groups are voicing concern that member states’ commitment to women’s issues is insufficient and slowing progress towards gender parity worldwide. The problem is “the entire approach towards understanding and addressing problems of gender inequality. Focusing on individual women’s issues, such as maternal mortality and access to education, fails to take the larger picture into consideration – the symptoms are being treated while the infection spreads.”
AIDS and Church
13. M&G – Pastor’s ‘Jesus had HIV’ sermon angers SA Christians
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-08-26-pastors-jesus-had-hiv-sermon-angers-sa-christians
In a controversial move, a South-African pastor has preached a sermon entitled “Jesus was HIV-positive” to break the – what he calls – ‘conspiracy of silence’ by the South African church. HIV is routinely being stigmatized as evil and a sin by the church, he said. To hammer his message home, he chose a provocative title. “In many parts of the Bible, God put himself in the position of the destitute, the sick, the marginalized,” he said. “When we attend to those who are sick, we are attending to him. When we ignore people who are sick, we are ignoring him.”