Monday, June 2, 2008

[EQ] The 'diagonal' approach to Global Fund financing a cure for the broader malaise of health systems?

The 'diagonal' approach to Global Fund financing:
a cure for the broader malaise of health systems?

Gorik Ooms*1, Wim Van Damme2, Brook K Baker3,4, Paul Zeitz5 and Ted Schrecker6

1 Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium, Brussels, Belgium

2 Department of Public Health, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

3 Northeastern University, School of Law, Boston, MA, USA

4 Health GAP (Global Access Project), New York, NY, USA

5 Global AIDS Alliance, Washington, DC, USA

6 Institute of Population Health, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Globalization and Health - March 2008, 4:6 doi:10.1186/1744-8603-4-6

Available online at: http://www.globalizationandhealth.com/content/4/1/6

Background

The potentially destructive polarisation between ‘vertical’ financing (aiming for disease-specific results) and ‘horizontal’ financing (aiming for improved health

systems) of health services in developing countries has found its way to the pages of Foreign Affairs and the Financial Times. The opportunity offered by ‘diagonal’

financing (aiming for disease-specific results through improved health systems) seems to be obscured in this polarisation.

In April 2007, the board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria agreed to consider comprehensive country health programmes for financing. The new International Health Partnership Plus, launched in September 2007, will help low-income countries to develop such programmes. The combination could lead the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to a much broader financing scope.

Discussion

This evolution might be critical for the future of AIDS treatment in low-income countries, yet it is proposed at a time when the Global Fund to fight AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria is starved for resources. It might be unable to meet the needs of much broader and more expensive proposals. Furthermore, it might lose

some of its exceptional features in the process: its aim for international sustainability, rather than in-country sustainability, and its capacity to circumvent spending restrictions imposed by the International Monetary Fund.

Summary

The authors believe that a transformation of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria into a Global Health Fund is feasible, but only if

accompanied by a substantial increase of donor commitments to the Global Fund. The transformation of the Global Fund into a ‘diagonal’ and ultimately perhaps ‘horizontal’ financing approach should happen gradually and carefully, and be accompanied by measures to safeguard its exceptional features

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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
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[EQ] Towards Universal Access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector

Towards Universal Access:
Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector

WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF Progress Report June 2008

Available online PDF [148p.] at: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/Towards_Universal_Access_Report_2008.pdf

GENEVA, 2 June 2008 - The end of 2007 marks an important step in the history of the HIV epidemic. According to the WHO, UNAIDS and UNICEF report Towards Universal Access: Scaling up Priority HIV/AIDS Interventions in the Health Sector, nearly a million more people (950,000) were receiving treatment with antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low- and middle-income countries by year’s end, bringing the total number of recipients to close to 3 million—a more than seven-fold increase over four years.

“….Nevertheless, countries are still far from meeting universal access goals. An estimated 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, and overall, ART coverage still remains low—only 31% of people estimated to be in need of treatment in low- and middle-income countries were receiving it in 2007.

Moreover, weak health systems and, in particular, a critical shortage of health-care personnel and a lack of long-term sustained funding threaten efforts to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. At the end of 2007, the gap between required and available funding was estimated to be US$ 8.1 billion. To meet universal access targets, funding will have to more than quadruple to US$ 35 billion in 2010 and to US$ 41 billion in 2015…..”

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[EQ] Canadian Conference on International Health Call for Abstracts Deadline Extended to June 15, 2008

15th Canadian Conference on International Health Call for Abstracts Deadline Extended to June 15, 2008

October 26 - 29, 2008 Ottawa - Canada

The theme this year: "Checking In: Health for All or Health for Some?"

Website: http://www.csih.org/en/ccih/index.asp

To present a paper, poster, workshop or symposia to submit their abstract as soon as possible. Abstracts can be submitted in English, French or Spanish at:

Call for abstracts: http://www.csih.org/en/ccih/callforabstracts2008.asp

CCIH 2008 ‘Checking In: Health for All or Health for Some?’ will provide a kaleidoscope of perspectives on primary health care and offer a forum for re-examining both successes and failures of practice, policies and research. Practitioners, community members, policy makers and researchers will meet to explore new global partnerships, to share new visions and ways of working in primary health care that offer possibilities for achieving improvements to community health, progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, improved equity on the social determinants of health, and strengthened health systems.

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