I moderated a debate this morning, one in a series on HIV/AIDS issues sponsored by the World Bank and USAID. This was the topic: “Countries should spend a majority of what is likely to be a flat or even declining HIV prevention budget on ‘treatment as prevention.’” The pro and con sides were each represented by two eminent and articulate medical doctor/scientist/researcher/public health experts.
News about the Global Fund, fuelled in part by a recent FP article by Roger Bate, set off a flurry of tweets and blogs yesterday—so much so that I had to tune out of Twitter to write this.
I am pleased to announce that Amanda Glassman joins CGD today as the new director of CGD’s Global Health Policy program and a CGD research fellow. Amanda was chosen from a crowded field of highly qualified candidates, and I am delighted to welcome her to CGD.
Secretary Hilary R. Clinton spoke yesterday at SAIS on the objectives of the Global Health Initiative (GHI). The webcast of the event provided a forum for an interesting and interested set of tweeters (I participated) to point out what we heard and did not hear during the talk.
In a blog posted last October, David Roodman here at the CGD showed that total aid flows from some of the more generous donor countries have declined in the years following a financial crisis. Check out his gorgeous graphics which were picked up within days by the Washington Post.
In a recent Q&A over at IHT's Managing Globalization blog, CGD President Nancy Birdsall repeatedly emphasized the need for an International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3IE) to better ascertain what works in global health and development. Now, Ruth Levine and Bill Savedoff expand on the plans for establishing 3IE in a new Alliance Magazine article.
One of the most controversial subjects in global health is the topic of user fees for health services and commodities. Ever since Nancy Birdsall, David de Ferranti and John Akin declined to rule out user fees as a useful source of health financing way back in 1987, the World Bank has been pilloried for "advocating user fees" in the health sector, which the Bank has never done.
Supporters of the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) for vaccines had much to toast this month as five countries--Britain, Canada, Italy, Norway and Russia--put forward $1.5 billion to support the first AMC for pneumococcal disease, the leading cause of childhood pneumonia deaths, and the second leading cause of childhood meningitis deaths
