Ideas to Action:

Independent research for global prosperity

September 2010

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IN THIS ISSUE

COMING SOON

ALSO OF INTEREST

IN THIS ISSUE

New Working Group on Clinical Trials and Regulatory Pathways for Neglected Diseases

Visiting fellow Tom Bollyky is leading a new CGD working group on Clinical Trials and Regulatory Pathways for Neglected Diseases. The working group--which includes twenty stakeholders and experts from the pharmaceutical industry, product development partnerships, regulatory bodies, donors and technical agencies--will discuss practical, scalable and feasible ways to reduce the cost, duration and risks of clinical trials. The working group will hold its first meeting in October. Its final report, planned for spring 2011, will offer recommendations for key stakeholders to improve and (hopefully) expedite late-stage clinical development for neglected disease products. More information on the working group, including a list of members, a background paper and Tom’s congressional testimony, can be found here.

How AIDS Donors can Strengthen the Health Workforce in Africa

The HIV/AIDS Monitor team released its latest publication, Zeroing In: AIDS Donors and Africa’s Health Workforce, which analyzes the implications of donor interventions on improving the long-term capacity of a health workforce. The research shows that temporary and HIV/AIDS-specific programs do little to address the long-term sustainability of a workforce to handle health needs beyond those related to HIV/AIDS. As donors shift their focus to longer-term responses, they should minimize negative effects of AIDS programs on the health workforce, maximize AIDS program contributions to health workforce development and expand the health workforce in the longer term. The Monitor released an accompanying policy brief with their report, which is available here.

New Working Group on United Nations' Role in Population Policy

As avid readers of this newsletter know, CGD often offers policy recommendations to major international organizations as they undergo leadership transitions (see here and here). With the pending appointment of a new executive director at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), as well as the recent appointment of the first head of the new UN Women's Agency, we are seizing another such opportunity. A new CGD working group began in August to analyze the UN's evolving role in population and development, with a specific focus on UNFPA. Rachel Nugent is co-chairing the working group with Professor David Bloom from Harvard University’s School of Public Health and Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, head of the Africa Regional Office of Partners in Population and Development. For more information on the working group, a list of members and a background paper on UNFPA’s role in addressing issues relating to population, please visit our webpage.

Drug Resistance Agenda Advances at Uppsala Meeting

The CGD Drug Resistance Working Group issued a final report in June with four major recommendations. One of those recommendations received a very positive hearing at a global conference in Uppsala, Sweden sponsored by ReAct and the Swedish Government. At the conference, CGD convened a meeting of major organizations involved in improving drug use to discuss the working group’s proposal for a Global Partnership to Improve Drug Prescribing, Dispensing and Use. Participants broadly agreed on the purposes and modalities of a partnership. CGD will continue working with this stakeholder group of professional societies, implementing NGOs and regulators to improve the way drugs are distributed and used in developing countries, with the goal of launching a new partnership on World Health Day 2011, the theme of which is drug resistance.

PopPov Research Network Opens Call for Papers

The PopPov Research Network--an international group of academic researchers and funders interested in how population dynamics affect economic outcomes--will hold its annual conference on population, reproductive health and economic development in January 2011 in Marseilles, France. For the first time, the Network has opened its call for papers to the public and welcomes submissions from researchers who are interested in how population dynamics influence poverty reduction at the household level and economic growth at the country level. More information on the conference and the call for papers is available here.

New to CGD's Global Health Policy Team

Last month, we welcomed Teju Velayudhan to CGD as a research assistant supporting Michael Clemens and Mead Over. Originally from Kerala, India, Teju graduated from Wellesley College with majors in mathematics and economics and completed her thesis on contraceptive choice and its effects on birth spacing among Bangladeshi and Indian women. Welcome to CGD, Teju!

COMING SOON

Can Cash on Delivery Aid Improve Health?

Next month, CGD will release a consultation draft concept note on Cash on Delivery Aid for Health, by Bill Savedoff, Mead Over and Katherine Douglas. The paper responds to numerous inquiries about applying the COD Aid strategy, described by Nancy Birdsall and Bill Savedoff in their recent book, to health goals such as improved maternal health, reduced child mortality and prevention of AIDS and malaria. The consultation draft will be posted on the CGD website, and we welcome your feedback and comments.

NCDs: Where Have All the Donors Gone?

The rapid acceleration of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the developing world is now a major development issue. NCDs were mentioned in the outcome document for the MDG Summit Review last week in New York, and the UN General Assembly is organizing a high-level meeting in September 2011 to consider NCDs. This fall, CGD will release a new report authored by Rachel Nugent and Andrea Feigl (Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health) showing the increasing trend in global funding for NCDs. We anticipate that this report will contribute to the active discussion about the “NCD ask” at next September’s UN meeting.

ALSO OF INTEREST

In the Media

  • Energy and Environment News quoted Tom Bollyky on USAID’s renewed focus on innovative technologies.
  • The New York Times quoted Mead Over on the cost of ARVs and the funding gap for a vaginal microbicide that was found to significantly reduce HIV infections in women.
  • Rachel Nugent was quoted by The Associated Press on donor funding for chronic diseases such as cancer, heart diseases and diabetes.
  • The Huffington Post published three blog posts by Nandini Oomman. The first offers commentary on the opening events of the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. The second post comments on a promising new female microbicide gel to reduce HIV infections and the importance of global development partnerships between African scientists and donors. A third offers the new head of UN Women advice on early steps to take as she works to make the new agency a successful UN body.

Global Health Policy Blog

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