This is a joint post with Rachel Silverman.
Through our Value for Money working group, we’ve spent much of the past year immersed in the world of global health funding agencies. With so many new agencies, particularly in the last quarter century (Figure 1), understanding the intricacies of the global health family can be daunting, even for the most devoted observers.
Chris Elias, President & CEO at PATH, will step down from his current position and join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) as President for global DEVELOPMENT in February 2012. Yes, that’s global development, not global health. First reactions from many in global health lamented the "loss" of one of the field’s most accomplished and visible experts. But as we digested the details of the announcement and discussed its implications, we realized that the Foundation’s decision could be a bonanza for global health. Here are two reasons why:
One of the good things about a big international meeting is that agencies become motivated to deliver on commitments made at earlier big international meetings. As aid-world gears up for the OECD aid effectiveness meeting in Busan in November, agencies are checking their compliance with recommendations from earlier meetings, which include improving accountability, defining measures and standards of performance, and monitoring and evaluating implementation (see here).
Progressive development thinkers have welcomed the announcement of new money for the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunization (GAVI), and support the partnership between governments and the private sector. A minority of NGOs have criticized GAVI on the grounds that it is too cozy with pharmaceutical companies. But we should be encouraging more, not less, engagement by pharmaceutical companies in the health needs of developing countries. Perhaps pharmaceutical companies have done more for the world’s poor than the aid industry?
My guest on this show is Amanda Glassman, research fellow and director of CGD’s Global Health Program. I recorded this Wonkcast with her last week, just ahead of the first pledging session for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).
One result of President Obama’s visit to the UK last month was a statement on the UK-US Partnership for Global Development in which the U.S. President and Prime Minister David Cameron “reaffirm [their] commitment to changing the lives of 1.2 billion poor people in the world today." In the statement they promise to work together on a range of important development issues: economic growth, conflict and fragile states, aid (accountability, transparency, results), global health, girls and women, and climate change.
Why is the World Health Organization (WHO) facing a financial crisis at a time when international support for global health issues has never been higher? The answer to this question cannot be found in any of the documents circulated for the 2011 World Health Assembly this week, but most observers cite three contributing factors: donors question the WHO’s performance, new organizations dedicated to specific issues have assumed responsibility for large parts of the global health agenda, and the WHO lacks a vision for its role and specific priorities within this new multi-faceted global health community.
Earlier today, Bill Gates met with the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to talk about scaling-up immunization efforts in advance of GAVI’s June 13th pledging conference.
Our new visiting fellow Andy Sumner has drawn attention to the fact that most of the world’s poor now live in middle-income countries, not low-income countries. As it turns out, most of the world’s unvaccinated one-year olds also live in middle-income countries, specifically the lower middle-income countries. It’s actually been this way for the past decade. Although, on average, vaccination rates are higher in the LMICs than the LICs (86% vs.