AFP: Obama to unveil new Africa strategy – President Obama will release a “comprehensive new US Africa strategy Thursday that seeks to boost trade, strengthen peace and security and bolster democratic institutions.” The plan will “encourage the ‘stunning’ potential of economic growth to lift millions out of poverty in a continent more often associated with famine, poverty and strife.” A senior US official explained that the strategy commits the US to be proactive to face the challenges of famine, drought and instability, while encouraging emerging growth potential. (Stephen Collinson)
The Hill: Op-Ed: Why investment in Africa makes a difference – Development aid to Africa is just a small part of the “picture on how to engage a continent which still grapples with famine, war, and disease but that also has growth rates that are leaving other regions . . . in the dust.” The US must still increase “engagement with Africa to support economic development and to build trade relations through foreign direct investment.” (Former Ambassador Stuart Holliday)
Devex: $162M to crush measles outbreaks – The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization will provide up to $107 million to six high-risk countries: Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Pakistan, while an additional $55 million will be provided through the Measles & Rubella Initiative. The decision accompanies the “One Year on: Delivering on the Promise of Vaccines for All” report, which urges the private sector to “step up commitments to GAVI’s matching fund.” (Jenny Lei Ravelo)
VOA: Treating HIV Positive Women – New research indicates that a combination of inexpensive antiretroviral drugs can be just as effective in treating HIV positive women in developing countries as a much more expensive drug combination. The drug navirapine, in combination with other antiretrovirals, is very effective, although it presents greater risk side effects and it is known that when navirapine is given to women by itself – not part of a combination — resistance can develop. (Joe DeCapua)
ICYMI: NYTimes: Desperate Ugandans Seek Makeshift Healers as Mysterious Illness Strikes Young – Villagers in a remote region of northern Uganda are facing nodding disease: a “merciless and debilitating disease that doctors cannot cure.” The villagers have turned to traditional healers in an effort to cure this mysterious ailment that affects the brains and nervous systems of children in this region. Since being identified, the disease has been forced to compete with illnesses like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS for foreign development aid. (Josh Kron)
