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New Report On Child Health, Education Shows Development Aid’s Effectiveness

April 17, 2012 Morning Briefing

“In an age of austerity, when everyone is feeling the pinch, some question whether we should continue giving aid to poor countries,” Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children U.K., writes in a Telegraph opinion piece. He says “[t]he resounding answer is yes, according to a new report [.pdf], … which for the first time presents quantifiable evidence of the impact of aid on child survival, health and education” (4/17). The joint report, by the Overseas Development Institute, Save the Children and UNICEF, “analyzes the improvements to children’s lives during the past two decades in five sectors: health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education, and child protection,” according to the report website (4/17). The report’s “findings are inspiring,” Forsyth writes, noting, “Four million fewer children aged under five died in 2010 than in 1990.”

FEWS Network Warns Of ‘Significantly Below Average’ Rainfall During Horn Of Africa Growing Season

April 6, 2012 Morning Briefing

“Rain may be ‘significantly’ below average in the Horn of Africa’s main growing season, potentially threatening a region still recovering from famine in 2011, the Famine Early Warning Systems [FEWS] network reported” in a statement (.pdf) on its website on Tuesday, Bloomberg writes. “Rain from March through May in the region, which includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, is expected to begin late and amount to only 60 percent to 85 percent of average, the U.S.-funded provider of food-security warnings” said in the statement, according to Bloomberg (Ruitenberg, 4/4). “The report warned of ‘significant impacts on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources’ in a region that in 2011 suffered one of its worst drought-related food crises in decades,” IRIN reports (4/5).

Florida Senator Marco Rubio Addresses Future Of U.S. Foreign Policy

April 26, 2012 Morning Briefing

“On April 25, Foreign Policy at Brookings hosted Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for a major address on the future of U.S. foreign policy,” according to an event summary on the organization’s website. “Senator Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, examined whether U.S. global leadership is sustainable and even necessary in the 21st century” and “explored what Americans need to do at this juncture, abroad and at home, to adapt and prepare for the changing international environment in the years ahead,” the summary states (4/26). “Millions of human beings are alive today because the United States, and others in the global community, are paying for their antiviral medication. … We need to continue this kind of foreign aid investment, not just in PEPFAR, but in malaria control and vaccine programs and in agriculture initiatives so that we can make similar strides in preventing hunger and establishing a healthy global community,” he said, according to a speech transcript (.pdf) (4/25).

New Initiative Aims To Strengthen Regulatory Capacity, Systems For Delivery Of Medicines In Africa

April 3, 2012 Morning Briefing

“The need to ensure that people in Africa have access to essential, high quality, safe and affordable medicines has just received a major boost with the launch of the East African Community (EAC) Medicines Registration Harmonization Project in Arusha, Tanzania, on 30 March 2011,” UNAIDS reports in a feature story on its website. An alliance “bringing together the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the U.K. Department for International Development (DfID), and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI),” “hope[s] to strengthen regulatory capacity and systems for medicines in Africa, including antiretroviral drugs, so that fewer lives are lost due to drugs which are unsafe and of poor quality or which are largely unavailable or delivered inefficiently,” according to the article (4/2).

Private U.S. Investments Improve Maternal Care Capacity In Ethiopia

February 15, 2012 Morning Briefing

Writing on the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s website, Sarah Sagely Klotz, executive director of Hamlin Fistula USA, reports on how private U.S. investments “are building maternal care capacity and producing tremendous results” in Ethiopia. “Unfortunately, around the globe women are often neglected and have very limited access to maternal care,” she writes, adding, “Through the generous investments made by many Americans, however, communities in developing countries are yielding substantial and lasting benefits” (2/14).

CSIS Report Examines Polio Eradication Efforts In Nigeria

February 13, 2012 Morning Briefing

This report — titled “The Race to Eradication,” published on Friday by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), and written by Jennifer Cooke, director of the CSIS Africa Program, and Farha Tahir, a program coordinator and research associate in the program — examines efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria, a country that “remains one of the most entrenched reservoirs of poliovirus in the world,” according to the report summary. CSIS writes on its website, “The Nigerian experience has underscored the complexity of the eradication endeavor and vividly demonstrates the fragility and reversibility of gains made to date” (2/10).

CSIS Report Examines Link Between Palestinian Bid For Statehood, U.S. Global Health Policy

March 8, 2012 Morning Briefing

A report (.pdf) published on Wednesday by the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) — titled “U.S. Global Health Policy in Palestinian Hands?” and written by J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS, and Haim Malka, senior fellow and deputy director of the CSIS Middle East Program — examines the relationship between Palestine’s bid for statehood and potential membership in U.N. bodies — including the WHO — and U.S. global health policy, according to the report summary. CSIS writes on its website, “Under current U.S. laws, such a decision by the Palestinians would trigger an automatic disruption to the United States’ assessed and voluntary contributions to WHO, with no waiver provisions” (3/7).

KFF Webcast Assesses President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Proposal, Potential Global Health Implications

February 22, 2012 Morning Briefing

The Kaiser Family Foundation held a live “In Focus” webcast on Tuesday “to assess President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal and potential implications for global health,” the foundation writes on its website. The webcast features a panel of global health policy experts, moderated by Jen Kates, vice president and director of global health & HIV policy at the foundation, “who analyze the Administration’s proposal and how it compares to current funding levels, what may happen as the budget winds its way through Congress, and the implications for the future of U.S. global health programs,” according to the website, which provides links to the panelists’ biographies (.pdf), the foundation’s Budget Tracker and a fact sheet on U.S. funding for the Global Health Initiative, among other resources (2/22). A post in the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog provides quotes from panelists Beth Tritter, managing director of the Glover Park Group; Larry Nowels, a consultant with the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign and the ONE Campaign; and Ambassador Mark Dybul, co-director of the Global Health Law Program at Georgetown University Law Center’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law (Aziz, 2/21). The Medill School of Journalism’s “Medill on the Hill” also covered the discussion (Morello, 2/21).

More Than 40% Of World’s Population At Risk Of Dengue, WHO Fact Sheet States

January 26, 2012 Morning Briefing

“The incidence of dengue has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades,” the WHO writes in an updated fact sheet about dengue and severe dengue published on the organization’s website. According to the fact sheet, “Over 2.5 billion people — over 40 percent of the world’s population — are now at risk from dengue,” and “WHO currently estimates there may be 50-100 million dengue infections worldwide every year” (January 2012).