Development

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I’ve received a few requests recently for my data sources, so I thought I’d highlight Eric Green’s latest post at Change.org.  Here, he has compiled an excellent list of data sources for global health.  In particular, he highlights the open data initiative at the World Bank, which was launched last Tuesday, compiling more than 2,000 […]

An article by Robert Guth in the Wall Street Journal last week highlighted the theory that I posed in last Thursday’s post, that our global health system is designed to be reactionary and emergency-focused: That question goes to the heart of one of the most controversial debates in global health: Is humanity better served by […]

Earlier this month, on World Health Day, I wrote about how we are all in this together, with a focus on the social determinants of health, including the social and environmental factors which affect our health.  What I overlooked, however, were the environmental determinants of health – a conversation which is pretty timely, considering that […]

I’m planning to devote Wednesdays to simple solutions that have a big impact in Global Health.  In anticipation of World Malaria Day (April 25th), I thought I’d highlight some of the latest research on insecticide-treated nets and some of the simple solutions that are being utilized to get them where they are needed most.   […]

In an effort to focus this blog – and provide myself a bit of structure and sanity! – I’m devoting Tuesdays to “systems issues”.  For today, let’s start with the basics: what is a health system?  I know, this sounds patronizing, but in fact, the goal of defining and strengthening health systems has only recently […]