Foreign Policy Blogs

Development

No silver bullets

I am currently reading the Millennium Villages 2008 Annual Report.  Here’s some food for thought: The MVP (Millennium Villages Project) is highlighting the value and feasibility of integrated community-based investments, rather than the one-by-one investment strategies too often deployed in rural areas.  Because of budgetary limitations, donors and NGOs too often search for a single […]

read more

Mapping human resources for health

Mapping human resources for health

Continuing our journey through the health systems lingo, consider these images, courtesy of World Mapper, which map the world based on the numbers.  We commonly use these images at the organization where I work to underscore the disparity of human resources for health in the regions of the world where the disease burden is greatest. Total […]

read more

World Health Assembly Opens

Today marks the opening session of the WHO’s World Health Assembly, the 63rd of its kind.  As the decision-making body of the WHO, the assembly meets annually to convene the health ministers of the 193 member states, approve the budget and appoint the Director General.  Top of the agenda this year is H1N1, which has been […]

read more

AIDS War Falling Apart, and more

AIDS War Falling Apart, and more

A few items of note that I read over the course of last week: Last Sunday, the New York Times published an article, “At Front Lines, AIDS War is Falling Apart”, causing a spate of emails and exchanges across the HIV/AIDS world.  The article cited the funding cuts that I discussed in the round-up two weeks back, […]

read more

Bear-wrestling

Russia holds a unique place in the international economy. It isn’t the largest, fastest, strongest, or even scariest, but it is a heavyweight whose actions matter more than most. It ranked just 146 out of 180 countries on the 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index, and had the 8th largest economy in the world in 2008 according […]

read more

Solutions: Gates Funds the Unique and Unusual

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released the results from their latest round of funding for innovative projects.  This round consists of 78 awards, of $100,000 each, and were chosen from nearly 3,000 submissions.  Reading the list was a wonder.  Winners include ideas for carnivorous plants and insecticide-treated scarves to prevent malaria, a circumcision tool […]

read more

Systems: Medicines, Vaccines and Technologies

Systems: Medicines, Vaccines and Technologies

According to the WHO, a “well-functioning health system ensures equitable access to essential medical products, vaccines and technologies of assured quality, safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness, and their scientifically sound and cost-effective use”.  In 2007, the pharmaceutical industry racked up revenues of $643 billion, with almost half of that generated in the United States.  Not so for long: emerging markets are […]

read more

Round-Up: Week of May 3rd

Here are some of my favourite reads from the week, focusing on maternal health in honour of Mother’s Day: State of the World’s Mothers was released on Tuesday by Save the Children.  The report ranks 160 countries in terms of where it is best and worst to be a mom.  Norway is at the top […]

read more

The Third Wheel

As I write this, British voters are going to the polls in what has been billed as one of the most exciting UK elections of the post-war period. Nick Clegg, member of the third-party Liberal Democrats, could overtake his mainstream rivals Gordon Brown (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservative). Regardless of the outcome, this is the […]

read more

What is sustainable about HIV/AIDS?

I’m currently attending a conference about sustainability in the HIV/AIDS sector, hosted by a prominent NGO that provides technical assistance to US Government funded organizations.  The opening session was quite interesting, addressing the topic of “What is the future for HIV/AIDS programmes in South Africa?”  It was a good crowd-attention getter, since everyone in the room […]

read more

Solutions: Soap Operas

Soap operas could save the world.  Who knew?  Soul City, one of the longest-running, most popular soaps in South Africa, is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and carries the messages of HIV prevention regularly (watch a clip here).   And an article in Sunday’s Boston Globe makes the case that soaps are also changing the ways […]

read more

Systems Thinking: Service Delivery

Systems Thinking: Service Delivery

Health Service Delivery: a commonly-used term without common definition.  Despite searching high and low for a definition that would satisfy me – the WHO, my source of choice, even failed me here – I have been forced to try my hand at crafting one.  But let me start with a story from my adopted country, […]

read more

Demand for Maternal Health Services Rises Ten-Fold in Sierra Leone

Demand for Maternal Health Services Rises Ten-Fold in Sierra Leone

Last week, President Koroma of Sierra Leone launched an initiative which promised free health care for pregnant and lactating women in the country.  This week, the numbers of women presenting at hospitals have increased ten-fold, stretching the capacity of the health system to provide care.  With infant mortality rates that rank the worst in the […]

read more

Global Health Round-Up May 2nd

Global Health Round-Up May 2nd

Here are a few articles that have caught my attention this week, focusing on some emerging analysis about the implications for President Obama’s re-vamp of PEPFAR and reduced commitments to the Global Fund: ·         A Boston Globe story from early April, which highlighted fears from HIV/AIDS treatment advocates that funding under Obama’s recent re-authorization and […]

read more

What to do with weak rule of law

In some countries, political will is not enough. This is because they don’t have the institutions to implement whatever anti-corruption political will there might be. Fighting corruption requires investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration in a prison with guards that can’t be paid off. Some countries lack some or all of these things. Guatemala poses an […]

read more