March 2009

Global Health Policy Research Network Update (March 2009)

IN THIS ISSUE

Also of Interest


IN THIS ISSUE


UNAIDS: Preparing for the Future

Michel Sidibé is settling into his new role as Executive Director of UNAIDS, and the UNAIDS Leadership Transition Working Group has a message to deliver. As a member of the UN family, UNAIDS has a unique role in holding donors to commitments to HIV/AIDS and providing programmatic guidance that is simultaneously grounded in science and human rights. The Working Group, convened by CGD and the Global Economic Governance Programme, offers recommendations for Sidibe about where UNAIDS can contribute most, particularly during times when the global community is distracted by severe economic challenges. The Working Group report will be launched in both the U.K. and the U.S. in late March.


Mead Over’s New Working Paper on HIV/AIDS in South Asia
In a new CGD Working Paper, CGD Senior Fellow Mead Over estimates that AIDS could increase the poverty rate in India by about three percentage points. Mead uses new projections of the cost of AIDS treatment in the region to urge South Asian governments to play a larger role in AIDS treatment. He points to heavy reliance on private health care of varying quality to argue that there are efficiency as well as equity grounds for government intervention. Although the low prevalence rate of AIDS in South Asia limits its economic impact there, treatment of AIDS patients presents major challenges to the region's predominantly private health care systems. An earlier version of this working paper appears in HIV and AIDS in South Asia: An Economic Development Risk. 2009. Eds. Mariam Claeson and Markus Haacker. World Bank.


IOM Committee on Cardiovascular Disease Includes CGD’s Rachel Nugent
The U.S. Institute of Medicine recently formed the “Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease: Meeting the Challenges in Developing Countries.” As a member, CGD Deputy Director of Global Health Rachel Nugent brings expertise on the economic impacts of chronic diseases to the Committee’s work. The Committee is expected to release a major report in early 2010.


April Harding’s Letter to the Editor of the Financial Times
In the wake of a report released last month by Oxfam in which the UK anti-poverty group denounced the World Bank and others for investing in private sector healthcare reforms in the developing world, Financial Times columnist Andrew Jack put this argument under the microscope. Jack urged a more nuanced approach, citing a range of key opinion leaders. The Financial Times published a letter from CGD Visiting Fellow April Harding in support of Jack’s column, in which she argued that by ignoring the private sector, we effectively turn our backs on the millions of poor people who consistently use these channels when they fall ill.


CGD’s Ruth Levine to Chair NICE International Advisory Group
The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is known globally for its expertise in applying evidence to health choices. NICE International is a new, not-for-profit consulting arm, offering advice to decision-makers around the world about how to create the capacity to assess and interpret evidence for health policy. CGD’s VP of Programs and Operations Ruth Levine has been invited to chair the initiative's Advisory Group, which brings together a diverse group of external experts to provide strategic direction for this new program.


HIV/AIDS Monitor Team Holds Workshop with African Research Partners in Bellagio
The HIV/AIDS Monitor is examining one of the most contentious global health issues: what role does the influx of global donor funds for HIV/AIDS play in national health workforce development? The Monitor’s research partners in Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia are collecting and analyzing data from surveys of health workers and managers, document reviews, and interviews with government officials, health facility managers, funding agents and funding recipients. The Monitor team and their research partners met in early February at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center to examine the data and share analytical tools. Findings, to be released in June, are expected to illustrate how PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and the World Bank MAP have helped to address or deepen the Human Resources for Health (HRH) crisis in each country. For more information about the workshop, see the recent blog by HIV/AIDS Monitor Policy Analyst David Wendt.

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