The Guardian: Top U.N. official puts faith in Ivanka Trump to lobby father on aid cuts
“The head of the U.N. World Food Programme has said he is hopeful Ivanka Trump will lobby her father into a U-turn on cuts to humanitarian aid in the face of an urgent cash crisis that is imperiling hundreds of thousands of lives. David Beasley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina who supported Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency, … said he believed Trump would now rethink his policy of stripping down funding of peacekeeping and humanitarian aid for 2018, due in part to the president’s ‘savvy’ daughter, with whom he posed for photographs following a meeting earlier this month…” (Boffey, 6/28).

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EURACTIV: Mimica: We are analyzing aid funding gaps left by the U.S.
“…Neven Mimica is Croatia’s first European Commissioner since the country’s E.U. accession in 2013. He has served as minister of European integration and as deputy prime minister. … Mimica spoke to EURACTIV’s Senior Editor Georgi Gotev [about issues ranging from polio eradication efforts to reductions in U.S. global health aid]…” (Gotev, 6/28).

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Devex: Child marriage set to cost developing countries billions of dollars by 2030
“Ending child marriage could add billions of dollars to developing countries’ economies by slowing population growth, improving education and health outcomes for young girls and their children, reducing government budgets, and boosting women’s earning potential, according to new research. Early marriage is linked to a range of negative social, health, and education impacts for the girls themselves, and many of these are passed to their children, making it an intergenerational problem…” (Edwards, 6/27).

NPR: The Billion Dollar Cost Of Child Marriage
“…[A] new report by the World Bank and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) … analyzes the impact of child marriage on the national budgets and economic growth of 25 countries where at least one in three women marry before age 18. Its conclusion: By 2030 child marriage will cost developing countries billions of dollars in health care and education costs as well as lost earnings potential…” (Aizenman, 6/27).

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Inter Press Service: More Bang for Your Buck: Saving Lives by Investing in the Poorest
“Investing in the health of the poorest communities saves almost twice as many lives, according to a U.N. agency’s analysis. In a new report titled ‘Narrowing the Gaps: The Power of Investing in the Poorest Children,’ the U.N.’s Children Agency (UNICEF) found that increased access to health among poor communities saves more lives and is more cost-effective than in non-poor communities…” (Yakupitiyage, 6/28).

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Reuters: WHO hopes Yemeni cholera outbreak is half done at 218,000 cases
“A major cholera outbreak in Yemen may have reached the halfway mark at 218,798 cases as a massive emergency response has begun to curb its spread two months into the epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday…” (Miles, 6/27).

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Xinhua/New China: WHO Africa health forum targets continent’s health care priorities, challenges
“[The] World Health Organization (WHO)’s first Africa health forum on Tuesday kicked off [in Kigali] to explore Africa’s health care priorities and challenges and find new ways to achieve better health for all. The two-day forum, hosted by WHO’s Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO), is organized under the theme of ‘Putting People First: The Road to Universal Health Coverage in Africa’…” (6/27).

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Project Syndicate: Confronting Africa’s Water Challenge
Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank

“…Owing to the effects of climate change, Africa is experiencing its worst drought since 1945, especially in Southern Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Northern Nigeria. These fragile areas now need the global community’s support. We need to build resilient systems to ensure access to potable water for all people, and to improve water-delivery and sanitation provisions in Africa’s rapidly growing urban areas. We should begin by expanding Africans’ capacity to harness wastewater. … Over the past six years, the African Development Bank has invested $3.3 billion in projects to expand access to water and improve sanitation, with around $2.2 billion of that going to urban services that reach at least 17 million people. … Africa’s wastewater-management challenges are substantial and complex. But the AfDB is determined to provide opportunities that pay dividends for African communities — in public health, improved sanitation, economic development, and environmental protection…” (6/27).

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Humanosphere: Threatened U.S. foreign aid program prevents malaria from killing kids in Africa
Humanosphere correspondent Tom Murphy discusses a recent study published in PLOS Medicine showing the President’s Malaria Initiative has saved the lives of two million children since its inception and an accompanying commentary by Stanford University researcher Eran Bendavid, in which he “agrees with the study’s authors that the findings show how foreign aid can work…” (6/27).

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Desmond Tutu Foundation: PEPFAR: Oh what good you have done!
This blog post summarizes PEPFAR’s impact in South Africa and discusses potential cuts to the U.S. initiative’s budget. The blog post concludes, “The HIV epidemic is far from over. Sub-Saharan Africa retains the highest HIV burden in the world today. AIDS continues to stalk our young people and rob our communities. The time is now, the challenge remains, and the reward is bigger than before! We continue to need global effort and investment in getting this job done!” (6/23).

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists”: Why It’s Important To Break The Silence On Menstrual Health
Madhu Krishna, country lead for water, sanitation and hygiene at BMGF, India, discusses the importance of education about menstruation and providing access to the hygiene and sanitation resources women need. She writes, “The need of the hour is to break the silence around menstruation. We need to understand the acute disadvantage that women face while menstruating and account for it across the entire sanitation value chain. … True success will be achieved when we establish menstruation as a normal process and get rid of all social taboos and myths which make it difficult for women to deal with such a basic, and significant portion of their life…” (6/23).

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Aidspan: Global Fund Observer
Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, published Issue 315 of the “Global Fund Observer.” The newsletter features articles on various topics, including a piece discussing a new study showing the “Global Fund’s gender strategy contains a strong commitment to addressing gender inequalities, but there is a major gap between policy and practice,” and another on a new report from ICASO and EANNASO showing “the Global Fund’s current HIV prevention investments in Africa fall short of” UNAIDS’ benchmark of 26 percent of spending (6/28).

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USAID: GH Newsletter — Acting on the Call 2017
USAID’s June 2017 Global Health Newsletter focuses on the 2017 Acting on the Call Report, which “details the progress we have made in 25 priority countries and includes a special focus on the role of health systems.” Articles discuss various topics, including nutrition’s role in maternal and child survival and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). The newsletter also features a podcast interview with Kelly Saldana, director of the Office of Health Systems, who “talks about the 2017 Acting on the Call report and why health systems strengthening is such a critical component of development” (June 2017).

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CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: Keeping Kids Healthy in Sierra Leone
Regan Rickert-Hartman and Tushar Singh, epidemiologists with CDC, discuss “improving surveillance systems and training the public health workforce in Sierra Leone,” particularly following the Ebola epidemic. They write, “Sierra Leone now has 58 disease detectives trained through the Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) with an additional 23 disease detectives currently undergoing training. Trainees and graduates have already investigated more than 50 outbreaks. Sierra Leone also has an Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system. The IDSR system monitors for more than 45 diseases, conditions, and public health threats. … We are proud to say that, thanks to this campaign, more than 2.8 million kids were vaccinated against measles in Sierra Leone…” (6/27).

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