CGD Policy Blogs

In a recent op-ed published in the New York Times International Edition, I discuss the United Nations' new projections on population. The UN Population Division recently raised its estimate for global population to reach 10.1 billion by 2100—a steep increase from the previous projections which showed the world's population leveling off at 9 billion by 2050. Clearly, the UN has been too optimistic in its assumptions about how long it would take for many countries to reach replacement fertility.

World Health Day is April 7. Who remembers the theme of World Health Day 2010? Never mind. If you read any major media in the past week, you almost couldn’t escape knowing that World Health Day 2011 is about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or drug resistance (here’s a link to an example from The Economist.) At least the World Health Organization’s (WHO) public relations machinery is ramped up. And they want us to be alarmed. Here’s a quote from WHO:

What a surprise I had last month when preparing for a talk at the World Bank about ways to reduce corruption in the health sector. I was asked to share ideas from a book I recently co-authored, called Anti-Corruption in the Health Sector: Strategies for Transparency and Accountability.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week named Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin of Nigeria to be the next executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), replacing Dr. Thoraya Obaid who held the position for 10 years. Dr. Osotimehin is a professor of medicine at Ibadan University. He served a brief time as Minister of Health in Nigeria and supported several controversial global health efforts, including polio elimination and increasing access to treatment for HIV/AIDS.