Morning Breakouts

Blog Examines Kaiser Family Foundation Survey On Americans’ Views Of U.S. Global Health Efforts

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

Highlighting the findings of a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released on Monday that examines Americans’ views on U.S. global health efforts, journalist Tom Paulson writes in KPLU’s “Humanosphere” blog, “The news media … largely ignored this but it deserves more attention.” He briefly summarizes the findings by writing, “[M]ost Americans don’t know how little we spend on foreign aid,” but “once Americans know how little we spend on foreign aid many say we should spend more.” Finally, he says the report found that “most Americans think we should work with others internationally … rather than try to do things on our own.” He concludes that the survey “includes some critical analysis and not always good news. But on the whole, it’s evidence that Americans do want to play a big role in making the world a better place — and evidence, if we needed it, of how disconnected the political dialogue has become from reality” (5/24).

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY13 State And Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a $52.1 billion appropriations bill to fund U.S. state and foreign operations in FY 2013, Devex reports. “The committee voted 29-1 to send the … bill to the full Senate floor for consideration,” the news service writes, adding, “It is still unclear when the bill will be scheduled for a full Senate vote” (Mungcal, 5/25). “The Senate bill would provide $8.5 billion to the [Global Health Initiative (GHI)], which is approximately $600 million more than the President’s FY13 request ($7.9 billion) and $500 million more than the House FY13 appropriations bill [.pdf] ($8.0 billion),” the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Policy Tracker” writes, noting, “It is also approximately $300 million above the FY12 amount ($8.2 billion)” (5/24).

Commentary Addresses Status Of The U.S. Global Health Initiative

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

In this Lancet opinion piece, Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of global health and HIV policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Josh Michaud, principal policy analyst at the Foundation, examine the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI), which “represents the bulk of the U.S. global health budget and bilateral activities in more than 80 countries.” Kates and Michaud provide a brief overview of the initiative, identify the principles upon which it was founded and say that four years into the GHI, “The picture is one of both successes and challenges.”

Editorial, Opinion Piece Examine Future Of World Health Organization

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

As the World Health Assembly draws to a close in Geneva this week, and Margaret Chan accepts her appointment to a second five-year term as director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), an editorial and an opinion piece examine the future of the U.N. health agency. Summaries of these pieces appear below.

IPS Reports On Population And Development Conference Draft Declaration

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

Inter Press Service reports on the Fifth International Parliamentarians’ Conference on the Implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) program of action, taking place in Istanbul, Turkey. “According to a preliminary draft Istanbul Declaration issued by conference participants, the world’s parliamentarians are determined to play their role in mobilizing the necessary resources for the ICPD agenda, as well as strengthening parliamentary oversight in ensuring its implementation,” IPS writes, adding, “In the draft declaration, to be finalized and adopted Friday, parliamentarians committed to looking ahead to ensure that future priorities are included in the goals and targets being developed through the post-2015 development agenda processes.” The news service also notes that “one of the outcomes of this meeting will be a call for governments to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to ICPD programs” (Atarah, 5/25).

Polio Eradication Must Not Fail

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

“[P]eople everywhere have a stake in eradicating polio, as we have stamped out smallpox,” a Bloomberg View editorial states, adding, “Immunizing the last unvaccinated children on the planet is an expensive and complex undertaking, and worth it in the long run.” The editorial notes, “If polio transmission could be stopped by 2015, the net benefit from reduced treatment costs and productivity gains through 2035 would be $40 billion to $50 billion, according to a 2010 study.”

G8 Leaders Must Follow Through On Food Security Commitments

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

“I have just returned from a whirlwind visit to Washington, D.C., and Chicago, where I participated in a number of events around the G8 and NATO Summits focused on food and nutrition security,” Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide, writes in the Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood” blog, adding, “Among so many world leaders and high-level representatives from civil society and academia, I felt a sense of critical mass beginning to form in the fight to end global hunger.” He continues, “It’s a feeling I’ve had before — perhaps not this strong — only to be disappointed when promises went unfulfilled. We must keep calling our leaders to persevere, especially those in the G8, to ensure that does not happen this time.”

Muslim Women, Religious Leaders Being Enlisted In Global Campaign To Eradicate Polio

May 25, 2012 Morning Briefing

“The last three countries where polio is still paralyzing children — Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria — said on Thursday that they have enlisted Muslim women and religious leaders to allay fears of vaccination and wipe out the disease,” Reuters reports. According to Shahnaz Wazir Ali, a special assistant to Pakistan’s Prime Minister who is in charge of the polio eradication campaign, more than 20 leading Islamic scholars “have signed an endorsement of the polio eradication program, which is being used to persuade Pakistani parents” to allow their children to be vaccinated, the news agency writes. In Nigeria, the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations is backing a polio immunization campaign there, Reuters notes. “It is not the first time that the world has come tantalizingly close to wiping out the crippling disease,” the news agency writes. “‘We’re so close, there is no time for complacency,’ Dr. Christopher Elias, head of global development at the [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation], a major donor, told Reuters in Geneva,” Reuters adds (Nebehay, 5/24).