Policy News
African leaders say continent ready to lead world growth – African leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos declared that they are ready to “play a new role in the global economy as a powerful driver of growth.” While much still needs to be done to improve Africa’s infrastructure and education system, Africa’s economy is already expanding rapidly. According to Guinea’s President Alpha Conde, “the fastest growing continent in the world is determined to keep reforming and innovating.” (AFP, Dave Clark)
Business, social media to prevent babies with HIV – Business and social media leaders united on Friday to “tackle the transmission of HIV from mothers to babies, saying the medicine and the money are largely in place, and with the right organizational skills they can eliminated HIV-infected births by 2015.” Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, “will lend the power of social media to increase awareness about the issue, by pulling in 1,000 influential Twitter and Facebook users” for the cause. (AP)
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Last week, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) celebrated the transition of Project HEART to local partners, after eight years of putting hundreds of thousands of patients on life-saving ARV treatment.
Kevin Kouassi, Community HIV Counselor from Dimbokro, Cote d’Ivoire, and Project HEART beneficiary, counsels a young pregnant woman about prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services. (Photo: Olivier Asselin)
Project HEART was launched in 2004 in partnership with the CDC and PEPFAR to scale up access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services in Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. As of September 2011, Project HEART has enrolled more than 1 million people in HIV care programs (including 80,000 children), provided antiretroviral treatment for more than 560,000 patients, and tested and counseled more than 2.5 million pregnant women.
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Why the GOP Presidential Candidates Are Wrong to Bash Foreign Aid – The “public opposition to providing foreign aid is one of the hoariest misconceptions in US foreign policy.” In fact, 81% of the U.S. population believes that “developed countries have a ‘moral responsibility to work to reduce hunger and severe poverty in poor countries.” Thus far, all of the GOP candidates, except Santorum, have failed to recognize the overwhelming majority of Americans in favor of preserving foreign aid. (Atlantic, Stewart M. Patrick)
U.S. fears serious famine in troubled Sudan region – As the possibility of a large-scale famine in Sudan becomes a possibility, the US is “boosting pressure in Khartoum to accept aid or face a unilateral assistance operation,” according to a senior US official. Without granted access, the US could be forced to carry assistance across the Sudanese border without their approval, a very risky decision. This famine could leave “more than a quarter of a million people on the brink of famine by March.” (Reuters, Andrew Quinn)
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In celebration of the Global Fund’s 10th anniversary, ONE Global Health Policy Manager Erin Hohlfelder reflects on the organization’s accomplishments over the years.
When I was ten, I was busy doing important things like mastering long division, practicing softball and rocking the plastic glasses/bowl cut combo. While I’m proud of those accomplishments, I have to say I’m even more proud today to honor all the incredible things that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has achieved in its first ten years of existence. To understand the Global Fund’s impact, it’s important to remember just how bad things were before it existed: Fewer than 50,000 Africans had access to AIDS treatment. Malaria was killing nearly 1 million people annually. Treating TB was considered too expensive for most of the developing world.
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Last week, the Brookings Institution hosted an event on US Aid and Transparency for Global Development. Administrator Rajiv Shah of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) gave a speech focused on the ways that USAID is fulfilling a government-wide commitment to increase transparency and accountability, both in relation to aid and to development more widely. Administrator Shah’s message was that we should keep pushing relentlessly, for it is only through a “more transparent, honest, and clear system” that citizens will understand the results we can achieve in development.
After the event, I had the opportunity to interview USAID’s Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning, and Learning Tony Pipa on USAID’s transparency strategy and the work ahead:
Why does transparency and accountability matter for development?
First, it allows partner countries to better manage their aid flows, and also helps empower their citizens to hold their governments as well as donor governments to account. From our standpoint, it provides a better understanding of what we’re doing, where we’re doing it, how we’re doing it, and to what effect. And then there’s the international accountability component. It sheds light on commitments and progress that both the US and other donor countries and organizations make. Transparency that empowers citizens to hold their governments to account forces us to be more effective and to be better cooperators and coordinators, to engage in development cooperation that lowers our own transaction costs by making sure we’re as focused as possible, and -– as the Administrator was saying –- be relentless.
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Editorial: Wealthy nations must step up to the challenge of world hunger – In the US, the cost of food amounts to just 6% of the average household budget, while in a country like Kenya, 45% of the household budget is spent on food. Funding is required to help “poor farm families increase their land’s productivity while preserving the land for future generations.” These investments would create sustainable, higher-yielding crops, and help to ensure food security and social and economic stability everywhere. (Seattle Times, Bill Gates)
Cardin fumes over oil transparency rule delay –Senator Cardin (D-MD) has expressed frustration with the SEC for failing to complete the financial reform rules that require SEC-listed oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. The “rule is aimed at creating more transparency to help end the “resource curse” that has seen oil- and mineral-rich nations in Africa and elsewhere afflicted with high levels of corruption, poverty and conflict.” (The Hill, Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman)
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As Africa’s consumers rise, so does inequality – Although the wealthier countries in Africa have faced an economic slowdown recently, sub-Saharan African economies are forecasted to grow by almost 6% in 2012 according to the IMF. The rapid growth in consumption in these countries has a downside, however, as it has been fueled by fast-growing credit. Inflation is most detrimental to the poorest, and tends to exacerbate inequality. (Reuters, Duncan Miriri)
Red Cross hopes to boost aid effort in Sudan – Despite restrictions by the Sudanese government against foreign relief agencies, the Red Cross hopes to expand their aid efforts. The UN estimates that “500,000 people have been displaced or severely affected” in the conflict areas, and the ICRC in Sudan will cooperate with the Sudanese Red Crescent Society to “ensure that people affected by . . . violence receive emergency aid and protection under international humanitarian law.” (AFP)
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