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June 30, 2009

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

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.

Nandini Oomman
June 10, 2009

An Underwhelming Hearing for an Overdue Appointment

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.

David Wendt
June 10, 2009

Will Donors Embrace Global "Entitlements" for Health Care And Other Basic Human Needs?

Gorik Ooms and European colleagues are organizing a small meeting in Brussels in October to be called the Global Responsibilities for Global Health Rights Conference. The Conference is organized by the Helene De Beir Foundation and has the moral or financial support of AIDS Fonds, Netherlands; Parliamentarians for the MDGs, Belgium; International Centre for Reproductive Health, Belgium; International Civil Society Support, Netherlands; Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium and The Lancet, United Kingdom.

Mead Over
June 5, 2009

Projecting the Future Budgetary Cost of AIDS Treatment (Manual, Software Package, and Data Set)

How much will it cost to provide AIDS treatment to 20 percent of those without it? To 60 percent or to 80 percent? How much would the cost of treating 80 percent of those in need be reduced by an effective HIV-prevention policy? What would happen if AIDS treatment became more effective? Or less so? These questions and more are of interest as the world attempts to build on recent successes in expanding AIDS treatment while addressing other health problems in the developing world and coping with the worldwide financial crisis.

Mead Over
June 3, 2009

PEPFAR Partnership Frameworks: Baby Steps for the Long Walk Ahead

On May 18th, 2009, The U.S. Government and Malawi signed the first ever Partnership Framework (PF) “as a means of promoting national ownership of sustainable HIV programs.” For those who crave details about agreements and partnerships, read the original, signed Malawian PDF version of the PF here and for those who just want the gist of what’s happening, PEPFAR’s OGAC offers a summary of it here.

Nandini Oomman
April 28, 2009

Waiting for Goosby: PEPFAR’s Chance to Shine

It’s official, finally! President Obama announced Eric Goosby as his nominee for Ambassador at Large and Global AIDS Coordinator at the Department of State. With this long-awaited decision, President Obama and the White House have broken the 98-day silence on the top three development positions beyond Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: heads of USAID, PEPFAR and the MCC.

Nandini Oomman

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