The early Christmas gift from the State Department of a 200+ page Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) was unwrapped several times over and inspected by its many recipients in the development and diplomacy communities. The “Made in DC” review is a 100% American product finely crafted by some of the best American women and men (see pages 214-215) in the U.S.G.
I am pleased to announce that the staff consultation draft report for the CGD Working Group on the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA’s) Role in International Population Policy, Reproductive and Sexual Health, and Reproductive Rights is now posted on the CGD website.
This week, PRI's “The World” is airing a piece on global health care rationing called, Rationing Health: Who Lives? Who Decides?
Motivated by U.S. attention to Sarah Palin’s “death panels” and Arizona’s recent decision to stop funding certain organ transplants under Medicaid, PRI’s “The World” has taken a welcome global perspective on the problem of health care rationing, featuring stories from India, South Africa, Zambia, and England.
In the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, visiting fellow Tom Bollyky and coauthor Lawrence Gostin make the case (gated) for increased U.S. engagement on global tobacco control. Tobacco use is currently the leading cause of disease and premature death in the world, tallying more deaths than HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria combined.
This weekend, children in Nicaragua received Advance Market Commitment (AMC)-financed pneumococcal vaccines that protect against the strains of pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis common in poor countries. Thanks in part to the AMC, the new and improved pneumo vaccines will reach the world's poorest children during the same year children in wealthy countries obtained access, and at a fraction of the price.
The QDDR pre-release consultation document says the Global Health Initiative will eventually be managed by USAID. For a number of reasons, it makes complete sense for USAID to lead the GHI.
On the occasion of World AIDS Day, President Bush’s has written an op-ed in today’s Washington Post vaunting his President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), telling Congress that AIDS patients supported by PEPFAR “cannot be abandoned” and pleading for continued expansion of treatment access. Astonishingly, except for a reference to hypothetical future vaccines, the Op-Ed has not one word about HIV prevention.
After almost five years (yes, it’s been that long!) of tracking and analyzing key features of the design, delivery and management of top global AIDS donors, several key policy debates have emerged from the HIV/AIDS Monitor’s country-level studies. Perhaps the most prominent was our call for greater information and data transparency, because we found that the lack of data made effectiveness analysis difficult, if not impossible.
UNAIDS, WHO, PEPFAR and the Global Fund for AIDS TB and Malaria (GFATM) all depend on long-run projections in order to make the case for increased attention and financing for AIDS. This dependency is a response to the reality that HIV is a slow epidemic with extraordinary “momentum”. Even small changes in the course of new infections require years to implement and have health and fiscal consequences for decades thereafter. According to the UNAIDS web site, “[s]ince 2001, the UNAIDS Secretariat have le
About a year ago the Institute of Medicine assembled a committee of 12 to advise the US on the implications for its policy towards Africa of the long-term burden of AIDS there. The two co-chairs of the committee, Tom Quinn and David Serwadda, will release the report findings to the press on Monday, November 27 here in DC, and I will help them respond to questions from the press and public. A formal description of the committee’s mandate and a complete list of the committee members can be found here. If you would