January 2007

Global Health Policy Research Network Update
January 2007

In this issue:

Global Fund Working Group Identifies Key Tasks for the Next Executive Director
Under the auspices of the HIV/AIDS Monitor, CGD convened a Working Group on the future of the Global Fund to identify the seven most critical tasks facing the new Executive Director and to issue recommendations on how to tackle them. The final report was published in early November to coincide with the most recent board meeting and the anticipated appointment of the ED. However, the board subsequently elected to extend the search until April (as explained by Steve Radelet on Views from the Center). The Working Group's recommendations were also the focus of a recent CGD event featuring Richard Feachem and Ambassador Mark Dybul; a transcript and video are available online.

New Findings from CGD Researchers on the Economics of AIDS and the Impact of Treatment
CGD Senior Fellow Mead Over co-edited an October supplement of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, co-authoring the introduction on "The Economics of Sexually Transmitted Infections" as well as an article on "Antiretroviral Therapy and HIV Prevention in India," which concludes that a program to reduce the negative consequences of the private-sector provision of antiretroviral therapy is the most cost-effective of three HIV antiretroviral therapy policy options available to the government of India under a high discount rate scenario and the least cost-effective at a lower discount rate. In a recent NBER Working Paper, "AIDS Treatment and Intrahousehold Resource Allocations," CGD Post-Doctoral Fellow Harsha Thirumurthy concludes that treating an HIV%20 adult with antitretroviral therapy will result in dramatic increases in the school attendance and nutritional status of children in the household, based on analysis of longitudinal household survey data collected in collaboration with a treatment program in western Kenya.

Advice for New Leadership at the World Bank and World Health Organization
As Margaret Chan takes the helm of the World Health Organization as its new Director General, she will undoubtedly confront many competing priorities for her attention and action. CGD's Director of Programs and Senior Fellow Ruth Levine highlights the challenges ahead and lays out key action items in an open letter published by the British Medical Journal. In a separate article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Ruth Levine and Kent Buse also draw attention to the opportunities and challenges for the World Bank's health, nutrition and population sector, as the new Senior Vice President for Human Development, Joy Phumaphi, joins the Bank from WHO.

Recent Publications on Agenda-Setting in Global Health
In an editorial that appeared in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization on December 1, World AIDS Day, CGD Visiting Fellow Jeremy Shiffman provides evidence of the possible crowding-out effect of AIDS on other health priorities. This builds on Jeremy’s earlier article on donor funding priorities for communicable disease control in Health Policy and Planning.

Leading Edge Group Convened to Design and Launch a New Impact Evaluation Entity
Following from a stakeholder meeting in Bellagio, Italy, in June 2006, pioneering agencies and governments have agreed to serve as members of the ad hoc "Leading Edge Group" to design a new entity for impact evaluation. Comprised of representatives from six low- and middle-income countries, four bilateral aid agencies, three development banks, two foundations, one international NGO, and one multilateral organization, the group aims to identify an appropriate governance structure, membership responsibilities and financial arrangements for the entity by early 2007. More information on the Leading Edge Group and other recent developments is available through the Evaluation Gap Update; and a discussion of the issues and the core recommendations for international action is presented in the Evaluation Gap Working Group report, When Will We Ever Learn? Improving Lives through Impact Evaluation.

Working Group on Performance-Based Incentives Learns from Real World Experiences
CGD's Working Group on Performance-Based Incentives is drafting a book to be released in mid-2007. It will examine whether and how money and other material incentives, explicitly linked to performance, can be used to address problems of underutilization, poor quality and inefficiency in the delivery of health services in developing countries. The book will present a conceptual overview and practical, real-world cases highlighting the opportunities for supply- and demand-side incentives to be employed in the health sector – and an assessment of the pitfalls and how they might be avoided in future performance-based programs. The cases include four country studies on Haiti, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Rwanda and three broader reviews of performance-based incentives used in TB programs, in conditional cash transfer programs, and in demand-side programs in the US. A background paper by Rena Eichler is currently available; extended working papers on half of the case studies will be available in early 2007.

IMF Working Group Selects Country Case Studies for Further Analysis
The Working Group on IMF-Supported Programs and Health Spending held its first meeting in October. Group members decided to enrich cross-country analyses by looking at the interaction between IMF program activities and health budgets in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia. Each country case study will involve a combination of desks reviews to examine the content of IMF programs, and country visits to interview key stakeholders. In addition, the Group has commissioned an additional background paper to examine the merits of different budgetary mechanisms and fiscal rules for protecting priority expenditures.

Global Health Policy Blog
For ongoing news, updates and commentary about our own work and our partners' activities, I encourage you to visit and contribute comments to our Global Health Policy blog. Recent highlights have included:

According to the leading blog search engine Technorati, we are currently ranked 99,014 out of over 62 million blogs, with 35 different blogs linking to us a total of 311 times over the past six months. Suggestions for posts can be sent to globalhealthpolicy@cgdev.org.

Many thanks and best wishes for a happy 2007,

Ruth Levine
Director of Programs and Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development