Devex: No intent to merge USAID into State, says deputy secretary of state
“The United States Department of State does not currently intend to merge the U.S. Agency for International Development into the State Department, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Monday. In a hearing that discussed State Department reorganization efforts and the State Department authorization bill, a number of senators expressed concern at having heard that USAID and State could be merged. … Sullivan said such a proposal ‘could be considered’ by a working group on foreign assistance that is currently considering options as part of the administration’s reorganization at State. … ‘But I can commit to you that there is not an intention of this department to absorb USAID’…” (Saldinger, 7/18).

New York Times: Tillerson’s Grand Renovation Plan in State Department Gets Assistance
“Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson is moving ahead with plans to restructure his department, and has hired two consulting groups to assist with the process, according to a cable sent to embassies around the world. In the cable, Mr. Tillerson said he had hired Deloitte and Insigniam to help oversee the reorganization. … The cable listed five committees that will analyze different aspects of the department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, with leaders from each organization among the committee members. … Mr. Tillerson has said he expected to come up with a reorganization plan by the end of the year and begin putting it to work next year, an unusually long process for such an effort but one that reflects his commitment to a top-to-bottom review…” (Harris, 7/17).

POLITICO: Dozens of former diplomats press Tillerson to keep refugee and migration bureau at State
“Over 40 former U.S. diplomats and national security officers along with almost 20 humanitarians wrote Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, requesting that the administration keep the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Their letter, dated Sunday, comes amid a planned reorganization of the government, which includes a proposal to eliminate this bureau entirely. … The team of more than 50 people sent the letter in response to leaked White House Domestic Policy Council documents, and they argued that this was not the time to remove the bureau with so much turmoil abroad…” (Siu, 7/17).

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Foreign Policy: House Bill Would Decimate World Bank Funding
“The House is pushing a bill that would slash World Bank funding by almost half — a far deeper cut to the international finance organization than even President Donald Trump’s budget proposed. On July 12, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee released its State and Foreign Operations bill, representing its vision for the 2018 fiscal year budget for the State Department, security responses, and humanitarian missions…” (Allen-Ebrahimian, 7/17).

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Intellectual Property Watch: WHO Study: Most Countries Have Ability To Reach Universal Health Coverage By 2030
“A new study by the World Health Organization finds that most countries will have the technological and the financial ability to reach universal health coverage in the next 13 years, according to authors. The document, published [Monday] in The Lancet [Global Health], estimates that ‘an additional $274 billion spending on health is needed per year by 2030 to make progress’ towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages)…” (Saez, 7/17).

Reuters: Global health price tag could be $371 billion a year by 2030, WHO says
“Meeting life-saving global health targets by 2030 could require investments by donors and national governments of up to $58 per person per year, or $371 billion annually, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday. In a best case scenario of increasing investment to meet the goals, some 97 million premature deaths could be prevented between now and 2030, and up to 8.4 years of life expectancy could be added in some countries, the WHO said in report. While most countries can afford the funds needed, the poorest nations will need donor help, it added…” (Kelland, 7/17).

Xinhua News: At least 274 bln USD needed yearly to reach global health targets: WHO
“… ‘Universal health coverage is ultimately a political choice. It is the responsibility of every country and national government to pursue it,’ said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [in an accompanying commentary]…” (7/18).

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Devex: Indigenous leaders lament disconnect between SDG indicators and reality at U.N.
“An annual review of the Sustainable Development Goals is underway at the United Nation’s high-level political forum in New York — but indigenous leaders attending the summit stressed the need to look beyond the U.N. for an accurate take on the health, environmental, and poverty challenges facing some of the world’s most vulnerable people…” (Lieberman, 7/17).

Inter Press Service: How to Achieve Universal Goals, Strategically
“…Forty-four countries came together in a series of high-level political forum meetings to assess their standing and discuss their challenges in the fight to achieve the 2030 universal goals — such as eradication of poverty and hunger…” (Majumdar, 7/17).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: Progress too slow on global goals for sustainable development, U.N. says
“Progress is not moving fast enough to meet an ambitious set of global goals to conquer poverty, inequality, and other international woes by a 2030 deadline, slowed largely by growing war and violence, the United Nations said on Monday. Advances have been few and uneven in reducing conflict and promoting gender equality, sustainable energy, infrastructure, and other key areas, the U.N. said in a report assessing the pace of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)…” (Wulfhorst, 7/17).

U.N. News Centre: U.N. report urges accelerated efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals
“… ‘Implementation has begun, but the clock is ticking,’ stated [U.N. Secretary-General António] Guterres. ‘This report shows that the rate of progress in many areas is far slower than needed to meet the targets by 2030’…” (7/17).

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Newsweek: Global Disease: Nearly 13 Million Infants Were Not Vaccinated In 2016
“New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have found that 12.9 million infants, or nearly one in 10, around the world didn’t receive any vaccinations in 2016. Consequently, these infants missed the first dose of the combined vaccine against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3), which are potentially deadly diseases…” (Gorman, 7/17).

U.N. News Centre: Health services, especially vaccines, must ‘reach the unreached,’ stress U.N. agencies
“… ‘Every contact with the health system must be seen as an opportunity to immunize,’ stressed WHO’s Director of Immunization, Dr. Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, noting that most of those who remained un-immunized were also the same as the ones missed by health systems. ‘These children most likely have also not received any of the other basic health services. If we are to raise the bar on global immunization coverage, health services must reach the unreached,’ he added…” (7/17).

VOA News: 1 in 10 Babies Received No Vaccinations in 2016
“…Current levels of immunization prevent two million to three million deaths worldwide every year from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and measles, according to WHO, which called routine vaccinations ‘one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions’ that can be carried out…” (7/17).

Xinhua News: U.N. agencies report 1 out of 10 infants not vaccinated in 2016
“…U.N. statistics also show that since 2010, the percentage of children who received their full course of routine immunizations has stalled at 86 percent, with no significant changes in any countries or regions during the past year…” (7/17).

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STAT: Sanofi denies rejecting Army request for a fair price on a Zika vaccine
“In a series of letters to the U.S. Army and several senators, Sanofi is denying that it rejected so-called fair pricing for a Zika virus vaccine that the company is developing with American taxpayer funds. The missives were sent as a growing number of federal and state lawmakers push the U.S. Army to negotiate a more favorable agreement with Sanofi, which is one of the world’s largest vaccine makers and has already received a $43 million U.S. research grant…” (Silverman, 7/17).

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: Africa fights fistula with mobile money and community ambassadors
“From training community ambassadors to encourage women with fistula to seek treatment, to cash for transport to hospitals, African nations are finding new ways to deal with the agonizing childbirth injury that ruins the lives of millions of girls and women. … [D]espite being preventable, across the developing world, more than two million girls and women still suffer from the painful, debilitating condition…” (Lazareva, 7/17).

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Washington Post: More than 20 million people are at risk of starving to death. Will the world step up?
Editorial Board

“More than 20 million people in four countries are at risk of starvation in the coming months, in what the United Nations has called the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. But the global response to the emergency has been lacking, both from governments and from private citizens. As of Monday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was reporting that only 43 percent of the $6.27 billion needed to head off famine this year in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Nigeria had been raised. … With public awareness still lagging, one encouraging development has been the formation by eight large U.S. private relief organizations of an unprecedented alliance, the Global Emergency Response Coalition, which on Monday launched a two-week fundraising drive. The campaign has attracted backing from several U.S. corporations, including Blackrock, PepsiCo, and Google; funds raised will be divided equally among the relief groups and used for aid in the four countries as well as six of their neighbors. The groups correctly make the point that further delays in aid, whether because of a lack of donations or bureaucratic slowness in distributing them, will translate directly into more avoidable deaths…” (7/17).

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Inter Press Service: Don’t Move Resources from Development to Security, Warns U.N. Chief
António Guterres, U.N. secretary general

“…[T]he agendas of sustainable development and the agendas of preventing (conflict) and sustaining peace need to be linked. But here there is a caveat — that link should not be a pretext to move resources from development to security. … [W]e are not fully ready for the new challenges of the present agenda 2030. That is why I presented to ECOSOC a first report on the reform of the U.N. development system. … I think that looking at this Assembly, one can only be enthusiastic about the fact that there is a very strong commitment not only to the implementation of the agenda but a very strong affirmation of support to multilateral governance as the way to lead the 2030 Agenda, respecting the leadership of member states but recognizing that only working together we can rebuild the trust that is needed and we can make the Agenda 2030 that factor that brings the fair globalization the world needs in the present times” (7/17).

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Independent Journal Review: Foreign Aid Has an Enormous ROI for the U.S. and Boosts Our National Security. Don’t Cut It.
Richard Fontaine, president of the Center for a New American Security

“…Wisely spending dollars abroad represents not merely charity, but an exercise in short and long-term self-interest. It helps keep America safe and serves our national security objectives. … [F]oreign aid programs can act as a preventive tonic, helping to stifle conflict and instability before they get started. By stemming the spread of pandemic disease, for example, or helping refugees who would otherwise migrate, or by improving the economic condition of those who may take up arms, such assistance can reduce the need for our military to get involved in the first place. … Instead of looking to trim our aid and development programs, we should look to new Marshall Plans, aimed at eradicating deadly diseases, or reducing malnutrition, or improving democracy and governance. Such a plan might actually bring together Republicans and Democrats in Congress and do good by serving the long-term interests of the American people…” (7/17).

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Devex: Opinion: More money alone won’t meet SDG 3
Susann Roth, senior social development specialist at the Asian Development Bank

“…Health care … is essentially a business, and as such needs proper funding mechanisms to deliver quality service. … As traditional donor grants are harder to come by, it’s time to find new ways to access money. Bonds and blended finance can help, and engaging the private sector will be critical. Bonds can support large-scale health and social infrastructure investment. … [B]lended finance can help make even the most expensive loans more accessible. … [T]he third option to increase health funding in developing Asia is to work with the private sector. … To move forward on health financing in developing Asia, we need solutions as well as money. Funds must be targeted to each country, align with national health plans, and be followed by serious government efforts to attract the private sector. Only then can we aspire to attain universal health coverage” (7/17).

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Huffington Post: Investing In Women’s Reproductive Health: The Value Of $8
Seema Jalan, executive director of the Universal Access Project

“…Just-released data from the Guttmacher Institute found that meeting the global need for family planning and maternal and newborn health care in developing regions would cost just $8.39 per person per year. Imagine: less than $10 per person to fulfill the essential human right of a woman to plan her family and, if and when she is ready to have a baby, to give birth safely. But this right is still not a reality for millions of girls and women. … If we want to reach the global Sustainable Development Goals, we must reach girls and women everywhere with quality reproductive health care. … More investment by governments, donors, civil society, and individuals is needed to close this gap and break down barriers to quality reproductive health care. Only then can the reproductive health and rights of … girls and women be fulfilled. For less than the cost of a pizza, we can help a woman become empowered to pursue her hopes and dreams for the future” (7/17).

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Friends of the Global Fight Blog: Brief: Disease Knows No Borders — Global Health Security Investments Make America Safer
“Friends of the Global Fight [Monday] released, ‘Disease Knows No Borders: Global Health Security Investments Make America Safer.’ This issue brief highlights how U.S. leadership in global health ultimately protects our country’s own health security. In addition, U.S. investments in bilateral health programs fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, in coordination with strategic investments in the Global Fund, save millions of lives and protect the U.S. from future disease threats…” (7/17).

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CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: Training the Future Public Health Workforce in Malawi: the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP)
Kiran Bhurtyal of CDC Malawi discusses Malawi’s Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) and the work and achievements of its trainees, writing, “Malawi has made much progress in public health in the past decade, but it has a long way to go to meet the goal of having at least one qualified field epidemiologist per 200,000 individuals. FETP-Frontline graduates fill this gap by strengthening Malawi’s public health workforce and surveillance capacity. Continuing the FETP program in Malawi will help ensure that surveillance officers in Malawi are trained on field epidemiology” (7/17).

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