| Posted December 18, 2007
Development Assistance & Foreign Aid | Health, HIV/AIDS & Infectious Diseases | Humanitarian Assistance
Rethinking International Aid
USINFO, eJournal USA, November 2007, online edition, 36p
"This issue of eJournal USA offers leading thinkers’ explanations of how the United States and other nations continue to wrestle with this question. In what ways has foreign assistance been structured, conditioned, distributed? What has been tried, and what works? How has the new "transformational diplomacy" described by Secretary Rice shaped the U.S. aid model, and how does that model differ from others?" Fulltext H1/07-07
Beyond Assistance: Report of the HELP Commission on Foreign Aid Reform
Brainard, Lael; Bush, Mary K. et al.
The Brookings Institution, December 19, 2007, online edition, 94p
"The Congressionally mandated HELP Commission released its recommendations on how
to modernize U.S. foreign aid this week at a forum hosted by Brookings Global.
Lael Brainard participated in an independent panel discussion that analyzed the
commission's final recommendations and discussed how best to move forward during
this moment of bi-partisan consensus on the urgent need for fundamental
reform." Lael Brainard is Vice President and Director of Brookings' Global Economy and Development Program. Mary K. Bush is the Chair of the HELP Commission. Fulltext and Video H2/07-07
The Political Economy of Poverty Reduction
Desai, Raj M.
The Brookings Institution, Wolfensohn Center for Development, Brookings Global Economy and Development Working Paper Series, November 2007, online edition, 58p
“Antipoverty programs can significantly increase developing countries' incomes by means of "scaling up" small-scale programs Raj Desai explains. He provides insight as to how small development programs can expand over time and across geography while overcoming political and institutional challenges.” Raj M. Desai is a visiting fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution and a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Fulltext H3/07-07
How the Millennium Development Goals Are Unfair to Africa
Easterly, William
The Brookings Institution, Working Paper 14, November 2007, online edition, 28p
"Those involved in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) campaign routinely state 'Africa will miss all the MDGs.' This paper argues that a series of arbitrary choices made in defining 'success' or 'failure' as achieving numerical targets for the Millennium Development Goals made attainment of the MDGs less likely in Africa than in other regions even when its progress was in line with historical or contemporary experience of other regions. The statement that 'Africa will miss all the MDGs' thus paints an unfairly bleak portrait of Africa." William Easterly is a visiting fellow at Brookings Global Economy and Development. He is also a Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House. Fulltext H4/07-07
Estimating the Global Health Impact of Improved Diagnostic Tools for the Developing World
Research Brief, RAND Corporation, Web posted November 14, 2007, online edition, 5p
"Access to appropriate diagnostic tools is an essential but often less-emphasized component in the evaluation and improvement of global health. Diagnostics are critical for identifying the presence and cause of disease and for determining an appropriate course of treatment." This article summarizes research that assesses how higher-quality and more-accessible clinical diagnostic tests for a number of common diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and bacterial pneumonia could save lives. Fulltext H5/07-07
Governing Global Health
Bloom, David E.
Finance & Development, December 2007, v44, #4, online edition
"As global health threats have grown, new players have altered the shape of the health system. But is the current system of health governance adequate to oversee the changing array of players and ensure that the right health issues are being tackled?" David E. Bloom is Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at the Harvard School of Public Health. Fulltext H6/07-07
Is the Global Health System Broken?
Finance & Development, December 2007, v44, #4, online edition
"In September 2000, the global community committed with great fanfare to meet a set of eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015—three of which center on health: reducing child mortality by two-thirds; reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths; and halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases. With eight years left, how are we doing? F&D asked a few key health players for their insights." Fulltext H7/07-07
Battling HIV/AIDS: Should More Money Be Spent on Prevention?
Bristol, Nellie
CQ Researcher, October 26, 2007, v17, #38, pp889-912
"Two-thirds of the world's 40 million HIV/AIDS cases are in impoverished
sub-Saharan Africa, which also has 12 million children orphaned by the disease.
In the United States, the toll is heaviest on African-American women. Rich
countries and private donors are now spending billions to fight AIDS in
developing countries. But only 2 million people in those countries receive
life-prolonging antiretroviral medications, while millions more are newly
infected. With an HIV vaccine years away, public health experts say a renewed
focus on prevention is the best way to stem the epidemic." Nellie Bristol is a veteran Capital Hill reporter who has covered heath policy in Washington for more than 20 years. Order article H8/07-07
Humanitarian Imperatives are Transforming Sovereignty
Cohen, Roberta
The Brookings Institution, Winter 2008, online edition
"In the 21st Century, the humanitarian imperative of saving lives must be reconciled with the most cardinal principle of international affairs, respect for non-interference in internal affairs. The humanitarian imperative calls for immediate aid to people whose survival is threatened, whereas respect for state sovereignty can mean leaving large numbers to die should their governments refuse entry to the international community.” Roberta Cohen is a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and Senior Adviser of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. A human rights specialist, Roberta Cohen focuses on the humanitarian and human rights aspects of emergency situations. She is a principal advisor to the representative of the UN secretary-general on the human rights of internally displaced persons. Fulltext H9/07-07
How Does it Stack Up? The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention at 10
Herby, Peter; La Haye, Eve
Arms Control Today, December 2007, v37, #7, online edition
"Ten years after its signature in Ottawa by 124 states, the Mine Ban Convention
has been one of the most successful multilateral arms treaties of recent times.
With 156 states-parties, it has become the principal international norm on
anti-personnel mines. It has helped ensure and sustain a decade of investment at
high levels in mine clearance and victim assistance." According to this article the Mine Ban Convention is still facing continuing challenges but this does not diminish the fact that
it is one of the great success stories in the humanitarian
field in recent years. Peter Herby is the head of the Arms Unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. Eve La Haye is a legal adviser in the Arms Unit of the Legal Division at the ICRC. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the ICRC. Fulltext H10/07-07
Sold Into Slavery
Tran, Jonathan
Christian Century, November 27, 2007, v124, #24, pp22-26
"The conditions that make human trafficking possible and profitable arise not
just in the poor countries that supply slaves but wherever the demand for
unprotected labor is outmatched only by the wealth and greed of those who pay
for it. These dynamics produce a deadly combination: desperation and
profiteering." The author discusses the scourge of human trafficking, and argues that global capitalism provides an oppportunity for such abuse to take place. Jonathan Tran teaches theological ethics at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Fulltext H11/07-07
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