End of the Golden Age of Global Health Funding?

Has funding for global health reached its peak? New findings from the Financing Global Health 2012 Report find that after two decades of sustained, rapid growth, development assistance for health has flat-lined. The plateau raises a number of new considerations for priority-setting and international health targets in the post-MDG era. Christopher Murray and Michael Hanlon of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation will discuss trends in funding and their implications for global health at an upcoming seminar on February 6th (RSVP here).

Responsibility in the Time of Cholera

More than two years after the disease broke out in October 2010, cholera has killed nearly 8,000 people and infected 6% of the Haitian population. In a recent blog (a follow-up to a previous note the year before), Victoria Fan examines what the UN should have done in Haiti and some options for moving forward. Recommendations include strengthening the new Cholera-Free Hispaniola Initiative. Other work on impact of disaster relief aid in Haiti (or lack thereof) by Vij Ramachandran and Julie Walz can be found here and here.

Access to Antiretrovirals and Behavior Change

This week CGD welcomed Willa Friedman of UC Berkeley who presented a new paper on the effects of ARV drug access on behavior change. The findings are striking, including an 82% relative increase in pregnancy and a 40% relative increase in recent self-reported sexual activity among young women in Kenya in areas where ARV were introduced between 2004 and 2008. Overall, the findings suggest that while ARV access reduces new HIV infections, it is also associated with increases in risky behavior, implying that funders should consider strategies –access to contraception, cash transfers to keep girls in school- to minimize risky behaviors alongside support for ARV.