U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe: United States Provides US$45 million in Response to Increased Food Insecurity in Zimbabwe “The United States government announced US$45 million in funding to respond to the critical food security situation in the upcoming lean season between October 2019 and March 2020 in Zimbabwe. The contribution, provided…

InterAction: 90+ NGOS and Members of Congress Strongly Oppose the Hold on Foreign Aid “Our alliance has acted collectively in multiple ways and at various times over the past week in response to the administration’s announcement to put a hold on congressionally approved foreign aid funds as a first step…

U.S. Government Accountability Office: Global Tobacco Control: U.S. Efforts Have Primarily Focused on Research and Surveillance This GAO report reviews U.S. global tobacco control efforts, examining funding and activities related to global tobacco control in fiscal years 2015-2018 through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, USAID, and the…

Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network: OPIC/USAID Coordination Report shows promise for strong development ties, but will Congress deliver? This post discusses the BUILD Act’s joint coordination report, which was released this week and provides details on how the new U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and USAID will work together. The post…

Reuters: South Africa puts initial universal health care cost at $17 billion “South Africa published its draft National Health Insurance (NHI) bill on Thursday, with one senior official estimating universal health care for millions of poorer citizens would cost about 256 billion rand ($16.89 billion) to implement by 2022. The…

Devex: Who will lead the ‘next frontier’ of governance funding? “Bilateral donors, under pressure to justify aid spending, are having an increasingly difficult time supporting issues that don’t demonstrate immediate results. Some development experts fear this could turn donors away from hard-to-measure work in governance, a trend that would lessen…

Toronto Star: Canada must step up in global fight against killer diseases Jane Philpott, independent MP for Markham-Stouffville and Canada’s minister of health from 2015 to 2017 “In a few weeks, the three-year funding cycle ends for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. … Working with other…

New York Times: U.S. Orders Freeze of Foreign Aid, Bypassing Congress “The Trump administration has ordered the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development to freeze much of the remaining money for foreign aid this year, in a move that suggests the funding could be cut altogether.…

Devex: Germany, foreign aid, and the elusive 0.7% “In 2016, Germany became the world’s second-largest aid donor by volume — but as the country grapples with its new role as a development leader, the debate over the future of its aid budget is far from settled. … Germany is likely…

Global Health NOW: How Sanctions Hurt North Korea’s Children Jeongyoon Kim, research assistant at the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change at Harvard Medical School and student at Bowdoin College, and Kee B. Park, director of the North Korea programs at the Korean American Medical Association and lecturer with…