Dear Colleagues,
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This week, < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
Perhaps it’s true that the UN suffers a crisis of confidence, as a Lancet editorial states, that strategic leadership seems to come from other institutions (like the G20) these days, and that the new UN maternal mortality figures should have been published in a journal. And maybe Obama’s speech was lacklustre, in the words of Jeffrey Sachs. But as an ODI blogpost blog post asserts, there was also a whiff of hope about the MDGs, perhaps more so than could have been expected one year ago.
Enjoy your reading.
MDG+ Summit
1. KFF – U.N. MDGs Summit
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/September/23/GH-092310-MDG-Summit.aspx
KFF gives an overview of some of the key outcomes of the MDG+ summit: the 31 page declaration to go for it till 2015, the Global strategy for women’s and children’s health, and the launch of an international alliance to support reproductive, maternal and newborn health.
Evaluations of the MDG summit can be read on many places, among others on Globalhealthpolicy.net (where Devi Sridhar argues we have to go beyond the MDG silos ) and in the Guardian (where Sachs says the MDGs seem invigorated after this week; he sees four reasons for this, but also worries about the current western mood or what he calls ‘the moral crisis in the western world’).
2. FT – Pool resources and reinvent global aid
Jeffrey Sachs;
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c510f34-c4fb-11df-9134-00144feab49a.html
In another piece, published in the FT, Sachs showed once again he’s a big fan of the Global Fund.
Unsurprisingly, Easterly was underwhelmed. He reckons much more attention should go to MDG8.
The Smart Global health blog also pitted a proponent and opponent of the GF (or at least of an expansion of the GF) against each other. Should the GF be transformed to become the Global Fund for health?
3. KFF – Pres. Obama Unveils New U.S. Global Development Policy At U.N. MDGs Summit
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/September/23/GH-092310-Obama-Global-Development.aspx
Obama unveiled the new
USAID also published the US strategy for meeting the MDGs: “Celebrate, innovate and sustain”.
4. Lancet – Achieving the health MDGs: country ownership in four steps
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus;
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61465-1/fulltext?_eventId=login
The chair of the Board of the GF points out how country ownership can become reality, by drawing on the Ethiopian experience.
5. Lancet – Offline: Life isn’t everything
Richard Horton;
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61464-X/fulltext
In Offline, Horton cautions against just focusing on child survival. What is it that we want children to survive for? He also sheds some light on
6. Ethiopian MoH – HIV/AIDS and the Health-related Millennium Development Goals: Ethiopia
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2010/20100917_ethiopia_aids_plus_mdgs_en.pdf
Our colleague Yibeltal took the lead in this commissioned report on
7. BMJ (news) – Global elimination of mother to child HIV transmission is now achievable, say agencies
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5152.full
For the first time the elimination of transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies is considered a realistic goal, according to a presentation at a summit in
8. UNAIDS – Twenty-two of the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa have reduced new HIV infections by more than 25%
New UNAIDS data show significant progress towards MDG 6 in sub-Saharan
Global Health
9. BMJ (news) – Industry lobbying and trade pacts threaten India
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5135.full
Indian manufacturers have supplied more than 80% of ARVs to developing countries since 2006, a new study has shown, amid concern that trade negotiations and industry lobbying threaten to restrict this flow of affordable generic drugs.
10. Globalization and health – Is globalization healthy: a statistical indicator analysis of the impacts of globalization on health
Pim Martens, Su-Mia Akin, Maud Huynen, and Mohsin Raza;
http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/6/1/16
This paper finds a positive association between a high level of globalization and low mortality rates. Yet, this shouldn’t be seen as simple evidence that globalization is mostly good for our health, the authors warn.
11. Science Speaks – Funding gap narrows for HIV prevention gel as donors scramble to find funding
The
12. CGD – PEPFAR Earns an ‘A’…but See Me After Class
Christina Droggitis;
Droggitis comments on a just released report on PEPFAR and country ownership. The recent shift in strategy seems to result in programs that align pretty well with national strategies.
13. PLOS – Community Case Management of Fever Due to Malaria and Pneumonia in Children Under Five in Zambia
Kojo Yeboah-Antwi et al;
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000340#abstract2
This paper suggests that the use of Community health workers could be a feasible and effective way to provide integrated management of pneumonia and malaria at the community level in developing countries.
14. Lancet (Correspondence) – Nurse management of HIV-infected patients
Yibeltal Assefa, Erik Schouten, Frank Chimbwandira, Katharina Hermann, Wim Van Damme;
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61487-0/fulltext
In a reply on Sanne et al.’s article in the Lancet, our colleagues point to the fairly common practice of nurse management of HIV-infected patients in
15. ODI – Aid and accountability in health: key themes and recommendations
Leni Wild & Pilar Domingo;
This new paper draws out the key themes and recommendations of a recent study for World Vision