Stuckler and co-authors bring back the old debate on the IMF and the “additionality” of aid with respect to public expenditure on health arguing that
World Bank and IMF macroeconomic policies…could be causing the displacement of health aid.
This is a joint post with David Goldsbrough.
As the possibility of a one trillion dollar supplement in IMF funding comes closer to fruition in the midst of alerts about the possibility of a new pandemic of influenza, some of us at CGD have been asked about the possibility of connections between IMF adjustment programs and health. Some of the questions are a bit loopy, like: Did the IMF cause the current flu epidemic? And even weirder: should the IMF prevent future flu epidemics?
Excuse me if I chuckle at the analogy between a 3-day meeting on malaria and Woodstock, or even the Oscars. I mean really, as one of my colleagues says, how could Woodstock measure up to malaria? There has been a certain amount of ceremony - starting with the stagey introductions that emanate from behind the tall curtains - and a rock-star build-up to the presence of Bill and Melinda Gates at the meeting this morning.
CGD convened the Global Health Forecasting Working Group in 2006 to study the challenges surrounding demand forecasting. The group concluded that better forecasting requires wider sharing of the risks involved in producing drugs among those who influence market dynamics, and aligning incentives through three mutually reinforcing actions:
Today's New York Times features efforts to introduce pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in developing countries, where it has the potential to combat life-threatening respiratory disease.
It's not often that you come across novels about global immunization, but Julia Alvarez appears to have written one, aptly titled Saving the World:
In this chapter from Markus Haacker's book on the macroeconomic implications of HIV/AIDS, Nancy Birdsall and Amar Hamoudi discuss the effect AIDS has on the supply of and demand for education in Africa.