The Washington Post: Gateses to lobby U.S. for global health funds
Bill and Melinda Gates will make a personal appeal to Washington officials tonight, asking them to continue funding global health initiatives despite the recession and to commit to nearly halve the number of child deaths worldwide by 2025. The presentation and the corresponding campaign “Living Proof” are meant to show Americans that U.S. funding is saving lives and that child deaths worldwide can be cut from more than 9 million to 5 million a year in the next 15 years.

The Times: Barack Obama must attend Copenhagen climate summit, says Lord Stern
UK Climate Chief Lord Stern of Brentford threw down the gauntlet to the US Administration, claiming that the world “desperately needs” President Obama to attend the United Nations meeting in Copenhagen if an effective deal on tackling climate change is to be reached this December. According to Stern, American leadership is urgently required if this historic opportunity presented was not to be squandered, emphasizing that the president’s “leadership would make an enormous difference.”

AFP: Forum seeks to assess world well-being
International experts Tuesday debated ways to measure the world’s well-being, in line with G20 calls for statisticians to take into account people’s happiness and not just their economic output. The four-day forum in the South Korean investigates ways of “going beyond GDP” to produce a new set of data to better measure the quality of life. An official attending the forum told experts on the environment, development, business and social issues that without such new indicators, a “crisis of confidence” could erode trust in institutions and in democracy itself.

Vanguard: TB: Expert worries over drug resistant strains
Worried by the incessant increase in tuberculosis cases in Nigeria, a medical expert has warned of the probability of increase in incidence and management of Multi- Drug Resistant (MDR) and extra drug Resistant (XDR) tuberculosis in the country. Blaming the surge on inappropriate therapy, HIV and poor case detection as factors fueling the epidemic in Nigeria, a group of doctors at this week’s Biannual Doctors’ Forum emphasized that simple measures can reduce transmission of the diseases, but community mobilization is required to improve detection.

Foreign Policy: How Microloans Change the Lives of Millions
In response to a recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, which argued that microlending “doesn’t actually do much to fight poverty,” Foreign Policy highlights the emerging microfinance field, contending that “lending to the poor is just one facet of microfinance.” The article further argues that helping the poor save, before or along with providing credit, “might be the missing piece to help solve the poverty puzzle.”

Business Day: Maternal Health Needs New Approach (Op-Ed)
Journalist and policy expert, Priya Shetty spotlights the need for improved maternal health in the developing world, arguing that is has “languished for decades” to the point that half a million women die every year from pregnancy and childbirth problems. As a major component of the Millennium Development Goals, Shetty maintains the solution lies in stimulating research to identify the best ways to solve maternal and child health problems, so as to create robust evidence-based policies.