Dear Colleagues,
This weekend, the football players at the World cup will share the limelight with the world’s top politicians who will attend the G8 and G20 summits in
Some material from the Global health conference in
Bristol-Myers Squibb has attracted scorn from global health advocacy groups for its controversial decision to close a factory in
Enjoy your reading.
Global Health
1.KFF – Obama Administration Names Eight ‘GHI Plus’ Countries
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/June/18/GH-061810-GHI-Plus.aspx
Last Friday, the Obama administration selected 8 so-called ‘GHI plus’ countries. They will serve as learning labs for a new global health strategy and make up the first set of GHI plus countries.
2. HP&P – The response to flexibility: country intervention choices in the first four rounds of the GAVI Health Systems Strengthening applications
Lieve Goeman, Benedicte Galichet, Denis G Porignon, et al.
http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/4/292
In this article the authors present an analysis of the first four rounds of countries’ applications to the GAVI Health System strengthening window. They conclude that there has been a shift to a more systemic approach but the interventions chosen are still focusing on short term fixes.
3. Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services – Examining the Global Health Arena: Strengths and Weaknesses of a Convention Approach to Global Health Challenges.
Balstad J, Røttingen JA
http://www.kunnskapssenteret.no/Publikasjoner/9516.cms?threepage=1
A report commissioned by the Norwegian Directorate of Health outlines the strengths and weaknesses of a convention approach to global health challenges. There are several key messages, among others, the fact that global interdependence makes the health of the world’s poorest and most marginalized people a pressing issue for everybody; and that a global health convention could indeed provide an appropriate instrument to deal with some of the intractable problems of global health. But there are challenges as well.
Health Financing
4. J int AIDS society – Is there an association between PEPFAR funding and improvement in national health indicators in Africa ? A retrospective study
Herbert C Duber, Thomas J Coates, Greg Szekeres, Amy H Kaji and Roger J Lewis, http://www.jiasociety.org/content/13/1/21
This study suggests that vertical programs, even one the scale of PEPFAR, may have little or no impact on health outcomes not explicitly targeted. We might however argue that comparing ‘intervention to non intervention’ is a myth at both global level and national levels (see Bryce et al. 2010 on SASDE). Each and every country/ district receives support from one or another project. More worrying is that health indicators are going backwards on average in the WHO African region.
5. Miller-Mc Cune – The AIDS Funding Dilemma
Paul Webster; http://www.miller-mccune.com/health/the-aids-funding-dilemma-16202/
In an interesting piece, Paul Webster sketches the emotions that are currently running high in the “AIDS exceptionalism” debate, against the backdrop of the Ugandan health care setting. The options are difficult but clear nevertheless: shift some AIDS funding to other care, or find billions in new support.
6. CGD – Could Local Public Disclosure Improve Country Ownership?
Mead Over reports on a recent workshop in
G8&20
7. Guardian – Playing for high stakes at the G20
Sarah Boseley; http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jun/23/g20-canada
Like many other global health people, Sarah Boseley had a productive week. In this blogpost she outlines what is at stake for the global health community at the G20 summit. The summit should address the need for safe abortion and it must deliver on its former pledge to keep people with HIV/Aids in
8. KFF – G8 G20 MDG and Global Health
http://globalhealth.kff.org/News.aspx?dr=June-24-2010
The KFF website features several pieces on the G8 and G20 summits. A UN report says MDG targets are still attainable, in spite of the global economic situation. Ban Ki Moon asks the G20 for an additional 60 billion for maternal and child health. And KFF links to several opinion pieces addressing the Canadian government, for example to re-commit to the Global Fund.
In related news, the Millennium development goals report card (issued by ODI & the Millennium Campaign) provides evidence that the MDG picture in
The current financial situation is bleak, though, in the western world, as UN officials stress in a BMJ news piece. They worry that the speed at which rich countries are implementing austerity measures to reduce public debt will adversely affect the amount of aid earmarked for meeting the MDGs by 2015. Rich countries seem about to slash their aid budgets.
Chronic Diseases
9. Lancet – Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa
Jean Claude N Mbanya, Ayesha A Motala, Eugene Sobngwi, Felix K Assah, Sostanie T Enoru; http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60550-8/fulltext
Today’s Lancet is a special issue on diabetes, and features among others this article on the worsening diabetes situation in sub-Saharan
10. Social determinants of diabetes and challenges of prevention
Nigel Unwin, David Whiting, Gojka Roglic; http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60840-9/fulltext
Unwin et al. sketch the social determinants of diabetes and stress that most people with diabetes live now in low-income and middle-income countries. It was a mistake to exclude diabetes and related chronic diseases from the MDGs. The prevention of diabetes and related diseases should thus be at the forefront of global efforts to reduce health inequity. The summit on chronic non-communicable diseases slated for September 2011 could be a good start.
Miscellaneous
11. PLOS – Maternal Health: Time to Deliver
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000300
This month PLoS Medicine has a series on maternal, neonatal, and child health (MNCH) in
12. SAJHIVMed – Innovative responses for preventing HIV transmission: The protective value of population-wide interruptions of risk activity.
Justin O Parkhurst, Alan Whiteside; http://www.sajhivmed.org.za/index.php/sajhivmed/article/view/612
Parkhurst and Whiteside come up with a very innovative way to prevent HIV transmission: sexual abstinence for one month, Ramadan-style. A population-wide ‘safe sex/no sex’ effort could make a significant contribution to global prevention efforts. The authors claim the impressive soccer ‘community mobilization’ of South African people during the World Cup football inspired their thinking. It could work. But it doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of the football on offer, just ask the British team, deprived of their “WAGs” by their dictatorial Italian coach.