A New Report Slams the World Bank’s Support of Health Systems for Insufficient Focus on Result
http://blogs.cgdev.org/
The Washington-based NGO ACTION has just released a report on the effectiveness of the World Bank's preeminent instrument for strengthening health sectors in poor countries: the Sector Wide Approach or SWAp. Through a SWAp the World Bank and other donors collectively provide broad financial support to a country's health sector, in order to foster country ownership and to coordinate all the many parts of the health sector toward improving the population's health status.
World Bank Misses the Boat on Tuberculosis in Africa
http://globalpoverty.change.org/
What happens when you pour billions of dollars in funding into an idealistic-sounding (if dubiously implemented) program for 13 years, but fail to invest evaluating it?
Well, sooner or later, a group like ACTION (Advocacy to Control Tuberculosis Internationally) comes along and calls you out on it. That's exactly what's happening today, with the release of a new report examining how the World Bank and its partners have failed to improve health through their use of sector-wide approaches.
The World Bank’s “horizontal” approach to health falls horizontal?
http://aidwatchers.com/
Since the late 1990s, the Bank and other donors have shifted resources to back the idea that "it's the health system, stupid." (According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, health sector support shot up from $2 million in 1998 to $937 million in 2007, and surpassed specific funding for TB and malaria for the first time in 2006.)
Strangely enough, whether this resource shift has actually improved health has never really been tested.
A new report funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that sector-wide approaches (aka SWAps-the development industry never misses the chance to make a silly acronym) "are not yet being implemented in a way that has led to improvements in health outcomes in effective, efficient, measurable, or sustainable ways." In other words... SWAps don't work.
Health Ministry adjusts TB control strategy for Thailand
http://www.mcot.net/cfcustom/cache_page/75565.html
Thailand's Public Health Ministry has improved both its strategy as well as its medications to fight against Tuberculosis (TB) as the country remains listed among 22 countries with problems in containing the disease, Permanent Secretary for Public Health Paichit Varachit said today.
Aeras Pioneering Use of Mobile Technology to Conduct Clinical Trials in Emerging Economies
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pioneering-use-of-mobile-technology-to-conduct-clinical-trials-in-emerging-economies-979
Last week, at the fourth annual Clinical Trials in Emerging Economies conference, Margaret Ann Snowden, Director of Biostatistics and Data Management at Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, and Daragh Ryan of Cmed Technology, presented a case study of the application of the latest in clinical data technology to a large Phase II clinical trial in South Africa. The presentation provided an update on how effective technology can be in promoting the development of affordable vaccine regimens for the prevention of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide.
World Bank gives Africa $11.5b financial support in 2010
http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2010/07/04/world-bank-gives-africa-11-5b-financial-support-in-2010/
The World Bank has committed a total of $11.5 billion to Africa in the fiscal year 2010. That is from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010
Journalists participate in TB awareness program
http://thehindu.com/news/article503095.ece
Journalists from across India who were awarded fellowships by the REACH Lilly MDR-TB Partnership Media Programme to study issues related to tuberculosis (TB) participated in a two-day orientation programme here on Monday and Tuesday.
Global Fund Exec Director Michel K & Indonesian Pres. Meet to Discuss Incresed Heatlh Investments
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/pressreleases/?pr=pr_100623
The Executive Director of the Global Fund Professor Michel Kazatchkine met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono today to congratulate him for progress in fighting AIDS, TB and malaria and to request Indonesia's support for efforts with the Global Fund's donor countries to increase funding for the three diseases worldwide.
New Report Finds Significant Investments in Broad Sector-Wide Approaches Are Not Producing Intended
http://www.action.org
A new report released today shows that the World Bank and other development agencies have invested billions of dollars over the last decade in an approach to health that is not achieving intended outcomes.
Parliamentary caucus on TB and HIV in Canada
Some 200 advocates, parliamentarians, community leaders and stakeholders came together in Ottawa on Parliament Hill last Monday to participate in the inaugural launch of the caucus, whose creation was initiated by MP Dr Ruby Dhalla.
