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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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July 10, 2009Will Barack Obama Call the World Bank for Advice about Fixing the U.S. Health System?Posted by Ruth Levine in Global Health Tags: GAVI, Global Fund, NICE, World BankAlong with positive feedback on yesterday’s post about the Global Fund, GAVI and the World Bank (all from individuals who didn’t want to post a comment publicly), I got one question: “Why did you say ‘self-proclaimed comparative advantage in financing and systems issues’? The Bank obviously has the comparative advantage on those topics.” How obvious the Bank’s comparative advantage is depends on the answer to the question “compared to what”? Compared to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance, two organizations established to collect and distribute money for disease-specific programs in developing countries, it’s undoubtedly true that the Bank has a set of assets that make it better suited to engaging in broad discussions about the direction of health financing and organization. The Bank has staff with knowledge about trends in health insurance, for example, and relatively easy access to Ministries of Finance. The Bank’s health sector portfolio has for a long while included many projects designed to improve management information systems, logistics and supply chain functions, health worker training, policymaking at central and subnational levels, and other “systems” stuff. In contrast, the Global Fund and GAVI don’t focus on those areas, for the most part, and have limited policy-level contacts outside of the health sector. So, compared to those two other organizations, the Bank has both the comparative and the absolute advantage in the health systems domain. Read More… 2 Comments »July 9, 2009Wedding Bells for GAVI, the World Bank and the Global Fund?Posted by Ruth Levine in Global Health Tags: GAVI, Global Fund, Health Systems, WHO, World BankThe global health meeting circuit is abuzz with discussions about whether the World Bank, the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will be able to forge a partnership to effectively support health system strengthening in low-income countries – and how that might happen through some undefined activity called “joint programming.” Paris in May, Venice in June, Washington in July. . . the conversation goes on and on, presumably with the intention of coming up with a mutually-agreed plan within the next several months. The impetus to mobilize money and technical expertise to support improved health sector performance is strong. For the past several years a combination of evidence and anecdote has revved up concerns that (a) donor funding for health organized into disease-, population- or intervention-specific pots can cause problems and distortions, such as inefficiencies in information systems and drug supply chains, and poaching of health workers; and (b) ambitious disease-, population- and intervention-specific goals can’t be achieved without robust systems for financing, regulating and delivering public and private health care. Read More… 9 Comments »June 19, 2009Give the Global Fund a Gold Star for Their Hard-Hitting Evaluation…Now Comes the Hard PartPosted by April Harding in Global Fund Tags: Global Fund, World BankIn 2002, the Global Fund (GF) was established to be a “new and improved” model for health aid. Founding head, Richard Feachem coined the pithy phrase “Raise it. Spend it. Prove it.” to capture their raison d’etre. A hard-hitting evaluation of their first five years has just been published. It gives them: an A – for “raising it”; a B – for “spending it”; and, a D minus, for “proving it”. Much to their credit, the evaluation assessed not just the grants, but also how the Fund’s structure, and modus operandi, influences how the grant activities are identified and implemented. GF funders and board members are now in a position to make informed decisions about changes that could make the GF work better. By any measure, hard work awaits. Read More… 8 Comments »June 12, 2009Vaccine AMC (Really) Launched TodayPosted by Ruth Levine in Global Health Tags: AMC, GAVI, World BankFour years after we published Making Markets for Vaccines laying out a way for donors to make a binding commitment to purchase a not-yet-developed vaccine, the pilot Advance Market Commitment has been launched at the G8 Finance Ministers’ Pre-Summit Meeting in Lecce, Italy. Six donors (Italy, the UK, Canada, Russia, Norway and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) have worked closely with the GAVI Alliance and the World Bank — along with many others who devoted countless hours to the design and implementation questions — to make the policy proposal a reality. They have stuck with this project through thick and thin, and have demonstrated impressive fortitude despite current financial pressures within donor agencies. Read More… 2 Comments »May 8, 2009The IMF and the Swine Flu? WHO’s on First!Posted by Mead Over in IMF, WHO Tags: Swine flu, WHO, World BankThis is a joint post with David Goldsbrough. As the possibility of a one trillion dollar supplement in IMF funding comes closer to fruition in the midst of alerts about the possibility of a new pandemic of influenza, some of us at CGD have been asked about the possibility of connections between IMF adjustment programs and health. Some of the questions are a bit loopy, like: Did the IMF cause the current flu epidemic? And even weirder: should the IMF prevent future flu epidemics? Read More… 1 Comment » |
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