Lancet Comment Examines Connection Between Climate Change, Health

A Lancet Comment examines the connection between climate change and human health and highlights the role health professionals can play in dealing with the future effects of climate change. “The only heartening aspect of this bleak terrain is the gathering awareness that many of the measures needed to make the necessary reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions are those needed to protect and improve global health. Overall, what is good for tackling climate change is good for health,” the authors write (Gill/Stott, 12/12).

Blog: Obama Administration Should Renegotiate Food Aid Convention To Combat Hunger

“For the past six years, donor states have lacked the will to renegotiate the expired” Food Aid Convention, which requires donors to collectively provide at least 5 million metric tons of food (or cash equivalent) annually to combat hunger in developing countries, according to a Huffington Post blog post. “[T]he European Community has indicated its willingness to renegotiate the Food Aid Convention. Whether the United States follows suit will be a test of the Obama administration’s dedication to fighting world hunger,” the author writes (Sepper, 12/9).

Blog: PEPFAR 2 Sets Stage With Policies That Can Increase Funding Flexibility

“While others have been quick to criticize the Obama administration’s new [PEPFAR] strategy, it is important to acknowledge policy reform as an essential first step,” according to a “Global Health Policy” blog post. The authors look at the five-year strategy’s “[l]anguage and general policy approach”; ” [e]vidence-based policy making and program design”; and “What’s ahead? Implementation and measurement challenges” (Oomman/Droggitis/Wendt, 12/9).

Report Examines Strategies For Reducing Violence Against Women Living With HIV/AIDS

A UNIFEM and ActionAid report examines strategies for reducing violence against women living with HIV/AIDS. It highlights key elements to implementing such strategies by profiling ten organizations who focus on work in this area (Patterson et al., 12/09).

PLoS Medicine Policy Forum Examines VISION 2020

A PLoS Medicine Policy Forum tracks the progress made in reducing childhood blindness, a goal of the global initiative, VISION 2020: The Right to Sight, that was launched in 1999 (Gogate/Kalua/Courtright, 12/8). A second PLoS Medicine Policy Forum explores the importance of managers who assist clinical personnel in achieving the goals of VISION 2020 in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest burden of people with vision impairments (Lewallen/Kello, 12/8).

Blog: U.S. Investment In Agricultural Research Is ‘Critical’

A Huffington Post blog post explored the U.S. role in addressing world hunger and agriculture productivity: “Federal investment in agricultural research for the 21st century is critical. Research funding must be targeted specifically for food productivity research … as well as how water supplies can most wisely be used. And the investment must come soon; new agricultural innovations can take years, even decades, to be widely adopted” (Levine/Atwood, 12/8).

Blog: PEPFAR Must Partner With Host Countries To Determine How To Meet 4M Treatment Goal

Under the new five-year strategy, “PEPFAR managers can meet the new goal of increasing the number of people on treatment to 4 million by 2014 in two ways that cost about the same: they can recruit earlier … OR they can expand access” to drugs, according to a “Global Health Policy” blog post. “The difficulty of this choice, and of choices along other tradeoff envelopes, underlines the importance of another theme of PEPFAR’s new strategy – ‘partnership’ in decision-making with the host country” (Over, 12/8).

International
Vaccine Access Center
Launch

The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Publish Health launched its International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) this week, according to a univeristy press release. The center, supported by GAVI Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aims “to increase access to lifesaving vaccines by overcoming many of the obstacles that often delay vaccine usage and distribution. IVAC will also serve as a source of vaccine policy information and analysis and will develop and use evidence to advocate for improved global health policies and their implementation” (12/8).

Guidelines For Public-Private Health Partnerships In Developing Countries

A recent Center for Global Development report seeks to provide donors and policymakers in developing countries with guidelines to facilitate public-private sector cooperation aimed at expanding “access to high-priority health services to underserved populations” (12/4).

Position Paper Examines Holistic Approach To HIV/AIDS Programming

A Management Sciences for Health position paper explores what the authors term “third generation HIV & AIDS interventions,” the systems approach to fighting HIV/AIDS. “Mounting a genuine health systems response to AIDS requires a fundamental shift from a fragmented approach to an approach based on a vision of a holistic, high-performing system that builds on these six fundamental components: Leadership, governance, and management; Health service delivery; Human resources for health; Pharmaceutial and laboratory management; Health care financing and financial management; Health information” (11/09).