Water Water Everywhere? A World Water Week Q&A with Louis Boorstin
In his previous role as head of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Louis Boorstin worked to co-invest with the World Bank in at-scale programs that would...
View ArticleA New DFID-Global Fund Performance Agreement: 10 Benchmarks to Achieve...
This past weekend in Montreal, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria matched and exceeded its last three-year replenishment cycle with contributions of nearly $13 billion USD for its work,...
View ArticleAMR Gets the UNGA Spotlight; Now Can It Get Meaningful Action?
This past week, the UN General Assembly featured a high-level meeting on the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—by far the most high-profile gathering ever on this topic, and just the...
View ArticleGetting Serious on Global Health Security
Zika’s rapid spread has focused media attention on how poorly prepared both rich and less rich countries are for infectious disease outbreaks. And while it seems that we are still flailing, in fact,...
View ArticleData Revolutionaries: Routine Administrative Data Can Be Sexy Too
Routine operational data on government programs lack sexiness, and are generally not trendy with Data Revolutionaries. But unlike censuses and household surveys, routine administrative data are readily...
View ArticleFP2020: Three Things to Ask About Next Week’s Progress Report
The Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) initiative hit its midpoint this year, about four years after its launch by global health leaders in 2012. Set up to “expand access to family planning information,...
View ArticleDear Donors: Three Recommendations to Accelerate Progress Toward the Global...
CGD’s new report on family planning, Aligning to 2020: How the FP2020 Core Partners Can Work Better, Together, offers three big recommendations for donors on the path to 2020. They are laid out in...
View ArticleGAO Report Misses the Point on USG Ebola Response
Having tried and mostly failed to track what was going on with US Government performance and spending on Ebola, I welcome the GAO’s overview of obligations and disbursements by appropriation account...
View ArticleMaybe Tobacco Taxes Aren’t So Special After All
In the past, I’ve highlighted how tobacco taxes are unique in the world of public policy, going so far as to argue that tobacco taxes are the single best health policy in the world. And while I still...
View ArticlePEPFAR is Life for Millions—But without Better Prevention, the AIDS Burden...
Without PEPFAR, it’s safe to say that almost all of Africa would be stuck near zero HIV treatment coverage. Instead, 49 percent of HIV-infected people were receiving life-saving treatment in 2014,...
View ArticleBridging the Gap Between Health and Finance: How Can Finance Ministries...
At our recent event, “How Can Finance Ministries Support a Sustainable HIV Response?” representatives from PEPFAR and the US Department of Treasury came together to discuss an innovative partnership...
View ArticleGlobal Family Planning Funding—What Should Funders Be Thinking About Now?
The new US administration may put US funding for family planning—comprising nearly half of all bilateral contributions—at risk. The family planning community still has time to make the case for...
View ArticleMinding Privacy in the Use of Health Data
The power and potential of digitized and linked data require careful stewardship. For example, integrating routine dataand HIV registers could generate efficiencies and potentially improve the delivery...
View ArticleZombie Policy on International Family Planning Rises Again
On his first day in the office, President Trump signed an executive order reinstating a 30-year-old political hot potato, the “Mexico City Policy." Like many, I will point out that reinstating the...
View ArticleHealth Results Innovation Trust Fund at 10: What Have We Learned So Far?
In 2007, the World Bank established the multi-donor Health Results Innovation Trust Fund (HRITF) to support and evaluate low-income country government efforts to pay providers based on their results in...
View ArticleThe IMF Finally Speaks on Tobacco Taxes
Last November, the IMF released a workable guide to issues that come up when a country decides to raise tobacco taxes. This is a big step. As far as I know, this is the first public statement from the...
View ArticleNew Systematic Review on Cash Transfers and Contraceptive Use—Good Research...
Can cash transfers increase women’s modern contraceptive use? This was the question that researchers recently set out to answer through a systematic review of existing studies on conditional and...
View ArticleGlobal Fund Executive Director Reboot
This week, the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was set to name the organization’s new executive director. Instead, after the shortlist of candidates appeared in the...
View ArticleWhat Happens without US in Global Health?
Though the US contribution to global health is small in absolute terms, it has an outsize influence on peoples’ lives. What would happen if the rumored steep cuts to foreign aid are applied to USG...
View ArticleShe Decides, But Who Pays?
This week, representatives from 50-plus countries gathered in Brussels for the “She Decides” conference, raising about $190 million in pledges to support women’s reproductive and sexual health and...
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