Healthization of Development

The announcement of the nomination and selection of Jim Kim as World Bank president has led to a debate over the role of health in global development efforts. Despite criticisms, Amanda Glassman lays out how the global health trend might be good for development in a recent blog, citing the importance of health and nutrition in terms of well-being, educational attainment, and productivity. Further, the health sector has many relevant lessons for other programs -- particularly in terms of M&E, improving efficiency, and building evidence bases through RCTs, case studies, and systematic reviews. Also see Amanda’s blog citing how the world’s turned upside down, Banker at the Global Fund, Doctor at the Bank?

Image: World Bank / CC

Defining the Impact of Health Systems Strengthening

Earlier this week, CGD hosted a panel entitled Linking Investments to Outcomes: Measuring Health System Effectiveness featuring an introduction by Ariel Pablos-Mendez (Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID), as well as panelists Karen Cavanaugh (USAID), Peter Berman (Harvard School of Public Health), and Sally Stansfield. The panel noted that currently Health System Strengthening efforts are often viewed as a black box for investments due to difficulty in tracking progress or monitoring results—and changes need to be made to demonstrate tractable value of these efforts. However, the panelists noted that there has been progress, including successes such as the use of Demographic and Health Surveys and National Health Accounts as metrics to evaluate health systems. Watch the full panel discussion here, and keep an eye out on our blog for further discussion on this topic.

Image: Kaveh Sadari

Innovative Financing in Early Recovery in Liberia

Moving systems from short-term humanitarian relief to sustainable and country-driven service delivery has been an elusive goal for many countries and their development partners. In post-conflict Liberia, the interim health plan set out a plan to make this transition, assisted by a pool of funds from several major donors. A CGD working paper by Jacob Hughes, Amanda Glassman, and Walter Gwenigale, entitled Innovative Financing in Early Recovery: The Liberia Health Sector Pool Fund, assesses the pool fund against aid effectiveness principles and compares the effort to other aid mechanisms in use in Liberia. The working paper suggests that deliberate and early strengthening of country capacity can allow for direct and accountable recipient government management of financial resources for service delivery, creating the conditions for greater financial stability and sustainability in the future.  


Image: World Bank/ CC

Rigorous Evaluations of Health Policy in India

Despite increases in health care spending and pushes towards universal coverage in India, the state of evaluation for health policy leaves something to be desired. Victoria Fan makes the case for urgent and careful evaluation of these polices in a recent commentary Learning and getting better: Rigorous evaluation of health policy in India published in the National Medical Journal of India. What are possible methods for improvement? Successful program evaluations require advance planning (ideally during the design of the program) and engagement between policy makers and researchers. Rigorous evidence in health policies can help countries reach universal health coverage.

Image: Acumen Fund/ CC