In the News
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1. USAID Administrator Shah Addresses Agency's FY13 Budget Proposal At House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing

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Speaking Tuesday at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said USAID's FY 2013 budget proposal "is slightly lower than last year," but that "future U.S. foreign aid investments will be more 'prioritized, focused and concentrated,'" and he "promised that U.S. aid will still be able to meet global development challenges," VOA's "Breaking News" blog reports (3/21). "While foreign assistance represents less than one percent of our budget, we are committed to improving our efficiency and maximizing the value of every dollar," Shah said, according to a transcript of his testimony. Shah outlined how the "budget prioritizes our USAID Forward suite of reforms," noting efforts in the Global Health Initiative and Feed the Future programs, among others, according to his speech (3/20).

Shah "faced sharp questioning" from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), "who called on USAID to consider cutting back aid to countries that no longer need support," VOA writes (3/21). Ros-Lehtinen also expressed her objection to the budget proposal's "increase in money for family planning and reproductive health [FP/RH], especially when all other global health accounts decline." A press release on the committee's website highlighted a letter Ros-Lehtinen sent to House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) detailing additional FP/RH funding concerns. According to the release, the letter expresses Ros-Lehtinen's "objection to the Administration's $39 million assistance to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)"; raises "the Committee Majority's opposition to the Administration's reversal of the Mexico City Policy," or "global gag rule," which banned federal funding from going to foreign non-governmental organizations that perform or provide information about or referral for the procedure as a method of family planning, using funds from any source; and states that "funding for family planning and reproductive health activities under the FY13 request should be reduced and re-allocated to critical sectors of global health currently marked for cuts" (3/21).

2. U.N.-Backed Campaign Aims To Vaccinate 111M Children In 20 Countries Against
Polio Over 4 Days

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"Some 111.1 million children below the age of five are to be vaccinated against polio in a synchronized campaign covering 20 countries in West and Central Africa starting on Friday," the WHO and UNICEF said in a joint statement on Wednesday, PANA reports (3/21). The campaign, which will last for four days, "is intended to serve as a massive boost in efforts to eradicate the disease, and will involve national health ministries and U.N. agencies, as well as tens of thousands of volunteers who will go from door-to-door immunizing children," the U.N. News Centre writes (3/21).

"According to the statement, Nigeria, the only polio endemic country in Africa, aims to get two drops of the oral vaccine into the mouths of 57.7 million children," and "[n]ineteen other countries, which are at risk of re-infection, are stepping up efforts to reach nearly 53.3 million children," PANA notes (3/21). "'Either we succeed in eradicating polio today or this initiative will falter tomorrow and polio will explode,' said UNICEF's Regional Director for West and Central Africa, David Gressly," according to the U.N. News Centre (3/21).

3. World Water Day Focuses On Role Of Water In Food Security

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"This year on World Water Day, Thursday, March 22, the United Nations highlights the critical role water plays in food security, at a time when water supplies are already under severe strain in many parts of the world," VOA News reports. As the world's population expands, "the demand for water is growing along with the demand for food," and agriculture accounts for 70 percent of water use worldwide, the news service notes (Baragona, 3/21). Additional information on World Water Day, which is coordinated by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is available online from U.N. Water (3/22).

4. Bloomberg Philanthropies Pledges $220M Over 4 Years To Global Anti-Tobacco Initiative

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday announced his charitable foundation will "spend $220 million over the next four years to discourage tobacco use in developing countries, as he seeks to promote strategies around the world that curbed smoking in his city," the Wall Street Journal reports (McKay, 3/21). Bloomberg announced "the new funding for Bloomberg Philanthropies on Thursday at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore," Reuters writes, noting "[t]he commitment takes the foundation's total pledge to the cause to almost $600 million" (Begley et al., 3/22).

"Bloomberg's money is targeted primarily at five populous countries where smoking is a big and growing problem -- Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Russia -- and 15 others, which, in total, are home to two-thirds of the world's smokers," the Guardian writes (Boseley, 3/21). "More than 80 countries have received support from the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use and since 2007, 30 countries have passed at least one of the protection policies the WHO defines as a high-level effort," according to Bloomberg News (Lopatto, 3/22). An infographic outlining the initiative's accomplishments is available online (3/22).

5. MSF Warns MDR-TB Is More Widespread Than Previously Thought

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Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says the spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) -- "a form of tuberculosis that does not respond to standard treatment and can kill in a matter of months" -- "is much greater than previously thought," VOA News reports. "'Wherever we're looking for drug-resistant TB we're finding it in very alarming numbers. And that suggests to us that the current statistics that are being published about the prevalence of MDR-TB are really just scratching the surface of the problem,' said Dr. Leslie Shanks, medical director for the group," the news service writes
(DeCapua, 3/21).

"Multidrug-resistant strains of the disease have evolved, sometimes because patients have not been given a full six months course of treatment for their regular TB," the Guardian's "Global Health Blog" reports, noting, "MDR-TB can take as long as two years to treat and the antibiotics needed are not available in the poorest countries." The blog provides statistics about TB in India, Myanmar, South Africa and Uzbekistan and notes "that a new trial has been launched by TB Alliance of two drugs taken in combination" with the aim of "shorten[ing] the treatment from six months to four months in not only ordinary TB but also some forms of drug-resistant TB" (Boseley, 3/21).

Editorials & Opinions
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6. Ensuring Clean Water For Food, Health Requires 'Collective Action'

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"As we mark World Water Day, the alarming statistics underlying water scarcity are worth repeating. Worldwide 2.7 billion people are currently affected by water shortages," Manish Bapna, acting president of the World Resources Institute (WRI), and Betsy Otto, director of WRI's Aqueduct Project, write in a Forbes opinion piece, noting that population growth, increasing food demand, and climate change threaten access to water. "Clean, abundant water is essential for life and economic growth. Since it is a finite resource, we need to find solutions that will ensure we can use water more efficiently and mange water systems more wisely," they state.

"We need better and more comprehensive data on water: where it is scarce, where it is abundant, what the quality is, and who is using it. Given the competing demands for water -- from food and drinking to manufacturing -- water security must be a shared endeavor," Bapna and Otto write, concluding, "Effective solutions will require collective action drawing on input from all users: communities, industry, agriculture, governments and more" (3/21).

Recent Releases
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7. Country Ownership Approach Adopted Under GHI 'Gaining Steam'

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In this post in the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health's (MLI) "Leading Global Health" blog, MLI Director Rosann Wisman examines how a new, country-led development approach under the Global Health Initiative (GHI) --which focuses on "[funding] the priorities of developing countries rather than solely the priorities of the donors" -- is "gaining steam." She writes, "I believe there are two reasons for this. One is that developing countries, having gained a foothold in funding their own priorities, are showing stronger results when they are in the driver's seat. Second, the tough economic times have caused several developing countries to internally face up to a key question: What do we do if our traditional donors no longer support our health programs?" (3/20).

8. Global Health 'Nowhere To Be Found' On G8 Agenda

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In this post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a research fellow at the center, summarizes the history of G8 global health initiatives and examines why global health has been dropped from the G8 and G20 agendas, writing that "as we look to the U.S.-hosted G8 meeting in 2012, global health is still nowhere to be found." She concludes, "As G8 budgets decline, the meeting is a unique opportunity to discuss cooperation on global health with the G8+5 leaders from emerging economies" (3/21).

9. MCC Fact Sheet Details Efforts To Improve Access To Water, Sanitation And Hygiene

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The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) provides a fact sheet (.pdf) detailing its efforts to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in the developing world. According to the fact sheet, the MCC and its partner countries "have prioritized WASH sector development," and "MCC has invested $793 million in WASH-related projects in nine partner countries" (3/19).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.