Global Health Policy Update (December 2009)
IN THIS ISSUE
- Overflow Crowd Greets the Launch of Start With A Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health
- CGD Seeks Feedback on Drug Resistance Working Group Draft Report
- Visiting Fellow Authors New Working Paper: “Global Health Interventions for U.S. Food and Drug Safety”
- CGD Experts Publish Article on HIV/AIDS Funding and Health Systems
- Ruth Levine Appointed to Global Fund Evaluation Advisory Group
- CGD’s Health Staff Move On and Move In
Coming Soon
- January Demographics and Development Lecture Will Feature Nancy Birdsall
- New Working Group Report with Recommendations for Private Sector Advisory Facility
- A Radical Notion? Paying “Cash on Delivery” for HIV Infections Averted
Also of Interest
IN THIS ISSUE
Overflow Crowd Greets the Launch of Start With A Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health
Speaking to a standing-room only crowd at the October launch of CGD’s report, Start With A Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health, Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. State Department and close advisor to Secretary Clinton, held up a copy of the report and said, “We have to underscore the worth of a girl, the future of our world. We have an unfinished agenda and we can do that best by making this report, Start With A Girl, our action manual.” For full coverage of the launch, please visit the CGD website.
Since the report launch, co-authors Ruth Levine and Miriam Temin are building support for the eight action items through briefings at USAID, the U.S. State Department, and with various other stakeholders. Specifically, they are developing indicators to measure progress for improved adolescent girls’ health as part of the U.S. Government’s Global Health Initiative. CGD will soon publish a working paper on the subject.
Start With A Girl is part of the Girls Count series – the first comprehensive set of research focused exclusively on adolescent girls in the developing world. Information about the reports can be found on the newly launched Coalition for Adolescent Girls website.
CGD Seeks Feedback on Drug Resistance Working Group Draft Report
Deadly diseases are becoming resistant to drugs faster than we can develop new treatments. Malaria, for example, kills almost one million children under the age of five annually in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and the newest and most cost-effective anti-malarials, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), already face resistance. No replacement treatment for malaria is on the horizon. Similar drug resistance problems face other diseases, such as TB, streptococcus pneumonia, and cholera.
Understanding the urgency of this problem, CGD created a Drug Resistance Working Group to identify practical and feasible ways to prevent or contain the emergence of drug resistance in developing countries and examine the policy context for responding to resistance.
In November, the Working Group released a draft report for review and posed a number of questions to elicit feedback about the eight recommendations in the report. The Working Group welcomes comments, suggestions and ideas to help shape the final report on global drug resistance policy to be published in spring 2010. Please visit the CGD website for more information.
Visiting Fellow Authors New Working Paper: “Global Health Interventions for U.S. Food and Drug Safety”
In 2007, a series of high-profile scandals involving contaminated blood thinner, toxic toothpaste, and melamine-laced pet food demonstrated the threat to U.S. public health of unsafe food and drug imports. Shortly thereafter, a 2008 public opinion poll found that 67% of Americans are worried about food safety, ranking it higher than concerns about pandemic flu or natural disasters.
Ensuring the safety of U.S. food and drug imports will require new approaches as well as new resources for traditional interventions, argues CGD visiting fellow Tom Bollyky in a new paper published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Drawing on lessons from successful public health interventions, this paper makes recommendations on how to address the evolving, global challenges of ensuring food and drug safety.
CGD Experts Publish Article on HIV/AIDS Funding and Health Systems
HIV/AIDS programs only function in strong health systems, argue Ruth Levine and Nandini Oomman in the November issue of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. Ruth and Nandini write that HIV/AIDS resources should be used to strengthen the overall capacity of health systems. The authors suggest that for AIDS resources to improve systematic capacities, decision makers should (a) reduce the risk of AIDS spending weakening the ability of health systems to respond to other health problems; (b) find ways for systems that are created to support AIDS treatment to serve other types of health services; and (c) learn from the ways that AIDS programs overcame demand-side barriers.
Ruth Levine Appointed to Global Fund Evaluation Advisory Group
Ruth Levine was appointed to the Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and was elected as one of two Vice Chairs at the December meeting. Ruth joins an impressive and diverse group of stakeholders who serve on the advisory body, providing independent assessment and advice to the Board of the Global Fund, and input to the Secretariat on its evaluation and results measurement activities.
CGD’s Health Staff Move On and Move In
This fall, CGD health program coordinator Danielle Kuczynski left CGD to take a position as program manager at Chemonics International, a Washington, DC development consulting firm. We are pleased to welcome Katie Stein and Katherine Douglas as CGD’s new Global Health Program Coordinators. Katie spent the past four years working on health and development projects in Rwanda, and Katherine recently completed her MPP in International Development at Georgetown University and has worked for the Millennium Challenge Corporation and several environmental NGOs.
COMING SOON
January Demographics and Development Lecture Will Feature Nancy Birdsall
In the final event of CGD’s Demographics and Development lecture series, Nancy Birdsall will reflect on her landmark 1980 paper, “Population Growth and Poverty in the Developing World.” Nancy will offer insight into lessons learned about population and demographics over the past 35 years, including some unexpected findings. Following Nancy’s remarks, Rachel Nugent and Shareen Joshi of Georgetown University will present their new paper, “Fertility Decline over the Past 35 Years: What Have We Learned?” and comment on how donor organizations can push the agenda forward. Please check the CGD website for updates on this event.
New Working Group Report with Recommendations for Private Sector Advisory Facility
In 2008, CGD convened a working group to design a practical way for donors and technical agencies to support successful public-private interactions in delivering health services. The Private Sector Advisory Facility Working Group recently released a final report explaining how governments can partner with the private sector to expand access to high-priority health services for underserved populations. The report will be launched in January 2010 (please check our website for updates).
A Radical Notion? Paying “Cash on Delivery” for HIV Infections Averted
In spite of remarkable advances in scaling up anti-retroviral therapy in recent years, the number of people living with HIV/AIDS continues to grow as newly infected people enter the population. A forthcoming CGD Working Paper by Mead Over and Timothy Hallett of Imperial College proposes an aid system that pays governments for preventing new HIV infections.
In their proposal, Mead and Timothy build on the principles of Cash on Delivery Aid – aid based on outputs rather than processes – to reduce the need for treatment by slowing new infections. The scheme uses contracts between donors and national governments with payment due upon the independent verification of reductions in HIV infection. The paper will explore ten possible methods of payments that link rewards to the estimated reduction in incidence. The full report will be available on the CGD website in January.
ALSO OF INTEREST
- New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof cites CGD’s contribution to his “Win a Trip” contest. (12/12/2009)
- In December’s edition of The Lancet, Ruth Levine is quoted on the challenge of finding the right price per dose on Advance Market Commitments for vaccines. (12/05/2009; subscription required). Ruth explains the matter more in her recent blog post.
- The Guardian UK used data from CGD to illustrate the distribution of health aid between HIV/AIDS and other diseases. (10/25/2009)
- A blog in The Huffington Post reflects on the focus on women and girls at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative, citing CGD’s Start with A Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health as an example. (09/30/2009)
Recent Events
Lessons Learned in Addressing HIV Infection Among Haitian Adolescents
While 90% of adolescents seen at the GHESKIO clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti know that condoms provide protection against HIV infection, only 9% of girls and 25% of boys report using them. In her recent seminar, Dr. Marie Marcelle Deschamps, Secretary General of the Haitian Study Group on Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO), spoke about GHESKIO’s integrated model for treating HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, diarrhea, and tuberculosis through its community- and clinic-based services. Dr. Deschamps highlighted the successes and limitations of GHESKIO's work to curb HIV infection among adolescent girls, with a particular emphasis on the challenges of working with a population with high levels of poverty and violence.
HIV Scale-up and Global Health Systems
Nandini Oomman spoke alongside a panel of experts at a symposium at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health on World AIDS Day. In a session focused on the intersection of HIV programming and women’s health and rights, Nandini used key findings and recommendations from the HIV/AIDS Monitor’s latest report, Moving Beyond Gender as Usual, to demonstrate how HIV/AIDS donors can do more for women and girls.
Summit on the Global Agenda
Rachel Nugent participated in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Summit on the Global Agenda in Dubai as a member of the Council on Chronic Diseases and Wellbeing. The Summit convened 70 groups of internationally-recognized leaders on diverse topics in an effort to develop proposals for improved global collaboration and governance. The proposals developed by each topical Council will advise on high-priority issues to be considered at the WEF annual meeting in Davos as well as further investments by the WEF and its sponsors. The Chronic Disease and Wellbeing Council is proposing the creation of a high-level global dialogue across multiple sectors on how to reduce the global risks of chronic disease.
Global Vaccine Development for World Health Symposium
Tom Bollyky spoke on regulatory strategies for improving access to vaccines for neglected diseases in developing countries at the Drug Information Association’s Global Vaccine Development for World Health Symposium. Tom’s talk focused on the potential benefits of regional, streamlined, and integrated regulatory approaches to clinical development, including improvements in the quality of clinical trial regulation and protection of clinical trial subjects, reductions in the cost, duration, and risk of conducting clinical trials in disease-endemic countries, and improved incentives for private investment.
Dispute over Pneumococcal Vaccine Initiative: A Response, Ruth Levine
Johns Hopkins Makes a New Commitment to Vaccine Access, Ruth Levine
Staging PEPFAR 2, Act I: Establishing a Policy Framework, Nandini Oomman
Should Poor Countries Follow WHO’s New Advice on When to Start AIDS Treatment?, Mead Over
Comment on Our Drug Resistance Consultation Report, Rachel Nugent
Family Planning Makes a Comeback with the U.S. Global Health Initiative, But Can We Make It Stay?, Nandini Oomman
How the Global Fund is Dealing with More Demand than Supply, David Wendt
Health Systems 101, Rachel Nugent
A Low-Key Summit with High-Key Potential, Rachel Nugent
Young People’s Health: Filling in the Blanks, Ruth Levine
Heads Up for the U.S. Global Health Initiative: EU Moving Faster?, David Wendt
Getting Down to Business in Global Health OR The Brain in Spain Works Mainly on Supply Chains (I think we’ve got it!), Ruth Levine
The Power of Demo-Graphics, Danielle Kuczynski
A New Center on Disease Outbreaks, Rachel Nugent
Value-Added Communication: PEPFAR Now on Twitter and Facebook, Nandini Oomman
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