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Can Research Make Health Systems Strengthening Sexier?

11/15/10
Nandini Oomman

Today, researchers, donors, policymakers, and advocates from around the world met in Montreux, Switzerland for the first ever Global Symposium for Health Systems Research.  The objectives of the conference, laid out in an interesting Debategraph , are to collectively establish a science-based approach to accelerate universal health coverage.  The topic of health systems failure sounds positively humdrum to many  of us who have worked in global health.

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Global Health Initiative Could Lead the Way for Broader Foreign Assistance Reform, but Questions Remain

4/15/10
David Wendt

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) seeks to bring U.S. global health efforts under a coordinated, integrated, sustainable, women-centered, and country-owned umbrella of global health foreign assistance. The U.S. is expected to spend $63 billion on global health over six years (2009-2014). Given the size of this effort, the GHI reforms may be the testing ground for any future reforms of U.S. foreign assistance.

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Will a New NIH-Funded Study Tell Us Whether Immediate AIDS Treatment Slows HIV Transmission?

8/4/09
Mead Over

Each year in Sub-Saharan Africa there are about 2-million new cases of HIV infection, most of whom would not need antiretroviral therapy (ART) under current guidelines for 8 to 12 more years. Since donors have not managed to place on treatment more than about half of those needing it each year, the 8 to 12 year lag between infection and need for treatment has been seen as a breathing space.

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Dire Straits: Money for Treatment, Prevention for Free?

8/4/09
Nandini Oomman

Last week, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) released a report of a study on the state of HIV Prevention in the U.S. This week, Drew Altman of the KFF shared his thoughts on the sorry state of spending at scale on prevention in the U.S., “despite the fact that the CDC determined in August of 2008 that the number of new HIV infections in the U.S.

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“Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Feed Me?”

7/31/09
Danielle Kuczynski

This is a joint post with Rachel Nugent.

A new report from the US Census Bureau offers the surprising fact that in the next 30 years, the human population over 65 will double. In ten years, there will be more over-65s than under-fives. Old news, you say? Yes, in Italy, Japan, and Russia this is old news. In developing countries, it is new – and somewhat alarming. In 2008, 62 percent of all those aged 65 and over (313 million people) lived in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania. The elderly population in developing countries is growing twice as fast as in developed countries (on a not very small base in India and China, as it turns out. Those two countries account for 1/3 of the world’s aged population and 37% of the total global population.)

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Can HIV/AIDS Donors be the lead "Gender Bender" of Global Development?

6/30/09
Nandini Oomman

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post

The current economic crisis is forcing HIV/AIDS donors to do more with less. Taking on gender inequality in more than a token way to improve efficiency and effectiveness is a no brainer. The current U.S. administration has made women and girls a high priority so PEPFAR has all the political backing it needs, and multi-lateral donors like the Global Fund and the World Bank also have full support from their boards of directors. The powerful combination of budget squeeze and political commitment creates an opportunity for three of the largest HIV/AIDS donors to become the lead “gender bender” in global development; that is, to support development programs that transform the lives of women and girls, and thus the societies in which they live.

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An Underwhelming Hearing for an Overdue Appointment

6/10/09
David Wendt

This is a joint post with Christina Droggitis.

Today in Windhoek, Namibia, the AIDS Implementation Meeting kicked off, notably without the presence of a Global AIDS Coordinator to provide U.S. government leadership to the many attendees regarding the future direction of the PEPFAR program. In Washington yesterday, a confirmation hearing was held for Dr. Goosby, Obama’s nominee for Global AIDS Coordinator. At around 2:20, the room was almost full, largely with Washington-based advocates on issues related to HIV/AIDS. Many, like us, had submitted questions they hoped would be asked. At around 2:40 Dr. Goosby, Sen. Feingold, Sen. Lugar and a handful of staffers took their seats. The opening remarks ran longer than the questions, which totaled only eight.

In Dr. Goosby’s opening statement he made points concerning four of the five questions posted by Nandini Oomman:

PEPFAR needs to move towards a sustainable country-owned response (two-in-one),

Country health systems need to be strengthened, and

It’s important to address the particular needs of women and girls.

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