Humanitas Global Development Blog

GBC Health Conference: A Look at Health & The Bottom Line

Colin Smith of Friends of the Global Fight will be reporting back from the GBCHealth Conference May 15-17 in New York, where hundreds of leaders will discuss what businesses are doing to improve global health—and what they can and should do moving forward.

GBCHealth Conference

Now in its fourth year, the GBCHealth Conference connects top leaders who recognize that prioritizing health is not just the right thing to do for the world, but the smart thing to do for business. In my work with Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, I get to see that idea in action, made real by people in the corporate sector who are walking the talk on better global health. What I also get to see: there’s so much more that businesses could do—as we all could.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which pools the world’s resources to finance health programs, has counted the private sector among its partners from day one. Innovative models like (RED) and Gift From Africa bring leading companies together to harness financial and in-kind support for the Global Fund. A long list of businesses also lend their expertise, assets, and human resources directly. Many of them will be in the room this week.

This year the private sector has the chance—and the responsibility—to step up its game.

Since its launch, the Global Fund has supported health workers in more than 150 countries and helped save millions of lives. In the fall, donors will “replenish” the Global Fund with three-year financial commitments. The private sector is one of four pillars in the replenishment, alongside traditional government donors, emerging economies, and implementing countries. A successful replenishment—and success against AIDS, tuberculsosis and malaria—depends on everyone coming to the table.

Later this week I’ll be eager to hear from business leaders themselves about what they can bring not just to the Global Fund, but to the broader fight for better health worldwide.

I’ll cover the conference from the opening plenary on the Millennium Development Goals until the closing keynote with renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs. And I’ll focus on some important conversations in between, including spotlights on malaria and tuberculosis, a look at digital health & development, and, of course, the role of the Global Fund, among a long list of other topics.

Will you be at the conference? I’d love to hear from you. What questions would you ask the panelists given the chance? Let me know. And if you won’t be in the room, you can still follow along and join the conversation on Twitter using #GBCH13.

Find Colin on Twitter at @theglobalfight or follow the Humanitas Global Development Blog for updates.

The Salt Dilemma: A Balancing Act

Guest post by Ruth Situma, Nutrition Specialist - Micronutrients, UNICEF

Salt and its role in nutrition are controversial topics. There are passionate views and valid research-based insights about salt consumption, which have governments, global health authorities and food companies confronted with the dilemma of finding a place for salt in a healthy diet, while managing its overconsumption. 

Salt is widely consumed globally. Approximately 90% of the salt consumed in industrialized countries is from processed foods, while developing countries largely consume salt in home-cooked food.  The latter trend is gradually changing with increased urbanization. Salt is unique as it is one of the foodstuffs that is consistently consumed all year round. Because of its universal appeal, the iodization of salt has been an important nutrition intervention, and has helped reduce iodine deficiency rates globally.

According to the WHO approximately 70% of the global population has access to adequately iodized salt. The WHO states that “salt is generally used as the vehicle for providing iodine because it is consumed by most of the population at fairly constant levels throughout the year, and its taste and appearance is not affected by iodization.”

The impact of salt iodization programs is well documented.  According to the WHO, iodine deficiency is the world's most prevalent, yet easily preventable, cause of brain damage.  With the help of salt iodization, the number of countries classified as iodine deficient has declined from 54 to 32 in the past 10 years, but there are some regions where rates remain elevated (South East Asia and Africa) or are on the rise (United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland).

While salt has been an important conduit for a critical micronutrient, its increasing overconsumption contributes to escalating rates of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. In 2007, the WHO came out with their salt consumption recommendations of <5 grams per day per person in an effort to prevent chronic diseases. This target may seem overambitious to some given salt’s prevalence in processed, packaged and snack foods, but with enabling policies and programs, and consumer engagement with salt consumption reduction efforts, global health authorities believe that we can make progress toward this target.

The challenge with salt is that it is lauded for its role in reducing rates of iodine deficiency diseases, but at the same time villainized for contributing to growing health problems.  What does this mean for iodization efforts and calls for universal salt iodization programs?  Do we throw out the baby with the bath water?  Do we look to other mechanisms by which to ensure adequate iodine intake? Were we sending the wrong message when we added an important micronutrient to a food that must be consumed in moderation?

All these questions are valid and worth debating.  As far as iodization efforts are concerned, a recent report written by health, nutrition and food fortification experts recognizes salt’s important role in the diet.  Moderation is key and in that moderation, we can actually increase fortification levels of iodine to reflect the new WHO recommendations for salt intake. This is important news for universal iodization advocacy efforts.

The fact is that we can and should promote reduced intake of salt, while not compromising the positive nutritional and health impact we have experienced with salt iodization efforts.  We must push forward with advocating for the universal access and use of iodized salt and know that we are not sending a mixed message. It’s ultimately about good communications to the public, enabling government policies, improved production and distribution efforts, and adjusted fortification levels to give consumers the maximum fortification benefit packed in a smaller punch.

Ruth Situma is a Nutrition Specialist; Micronutrients in UNICEF HQ New York. She has vast experience in Nutrition and Food security programmes in different countries in areas including Nutrition in emergencies, Micronutrients programmes, Nutrition information systems, Nutrition policies and advocacy. 

World Tuberculosis Day: Tackling TB in the 21st Century

Guest post by Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership 

I keep asking myself and those around me, why, in the 21st Century, are 1.4 million people a year still dying from TB, when it is a curable disease?

With TB largely consigned to the history books in Europe and the US, why can we not put a stop to this disease globally? Why are so few of us outraged that women and children are dying from TB in the same way as characters from La Bohéme or Les Misérables?

I also ask why we have not had any significant breakthroughs in TB research and development science and research, despite the disease being around for the last 2000 years? Why do we still have to use the 90 year-old Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine and the same drugs that were developed 50 years ago?

One of the answers to these questions is that the global fight against TB is underfunded and has not benefited from significant attention for some time. Is it almost as if the human race has become complacent and gotten used to having TB around.

To make things worse, years of neglect in the provision of quality TB care and a lack of funding has led to the development of strains of TB that are resistant to the most commonly used anti-TB drugs. Known as multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB, these strains can spread through the air like any other airborne disease.

I need to make one point clear. We should acknowledge what the TB community has achieved in the past 15 years with the tools, financing and support it has received from the global community. By rolling out quality TB care around the world we have saved 20 million lives since 1990. TB and HIV programmes are working much better together to address this double epidemic. The voices of people affected by TB have become louder in demanding access to quality services. A new rapid diagnosis test is being rolling out, a new anti-TB drug was announced in the first days of this year and more than a dozen TB vaccines are in the clinical trial phase.

However, we have a long and difficult way in front of us and this is the time for action! We cannot afford progress to grind to a halt. We must ensure that there is enough funding to provide TB care to all, especially the vulnerable and stigmatized, and ensure that we can find and treat the 3 million people a year who get ill with TB but don’t receive the quality care they need.

Therefore we need to ensure that the Global Fund—which provides the vast majority of international financing for TB programmes—has a successful fundraising drive this year.

We must also support countries and governments to mobilize domestic sources of funding so we can scale up our efforts and provide access to TB services for all that need them. We urgently need a steep increase in the financing for research and development for new tools—drugs, vaccines and diagnostics—if we are to achieve our dreams.

Dr. Lucica Ditiu was appointed Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership in January 2011. A native of Romania, Dr. Ditiu is a physician and researcher who has devoted her career to improving the lives of people living in communities heavily burdened by tuberculosis (TB).

National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

Post by Erica Oakley, Humanitas Global Development

Today, March 20, a little-known observance day is being celebrated in communities across the U.S.: National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NNHAAD).  NNHAAD is a day for drawing attention to and building support for HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care among American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian populations.

The first day of spring - the date selected to observe NNHAAD - was carefully chosen and is symbolic of the belief for many that the first day of spring brings forth a season of new beginnings and change.

With the observance of NNHAAD, we would like to highlight and draw attention to a few rates and statistics on HIV/AIDS in Native communities according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

• Among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN), women account for 29% of the HIV/AIDS diagnoses. 
• For Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NH/PI) populations given a diagnosis, 78% were men, 21% were women, and 1% were children (under 13 years of age) in 2005.
• From 2007 to 2010, new HIV infections among AI/NA populations increased by 8.7% (CDC).

While these percentages may seem low, one must remember to take into account the size of these populations compared to more populous races and ethnicities in the U.S. For example, according to the CDC, in 2005 American Indians and Alaska Natives ranked 3rd in rates of HIV/AIDS diagnosis, following blacks and Hispanics. To put this into numbers, the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections in 2008 per 100,000 persons were:

• 73.7 Black/African American
• 25.0 Hispanic/Latinos
• 22.85 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders 
• 11.9 American Indian and Alaska Native 
• 8.2 Whites
• 7.2 Asians

Given that many of these populations live in rural areas, access to health care services can be difficult. Not to mention other roadblocks to obtaining needed services such as language and cultural barriers. Native communities have some of the shortest survival times after diagnosis of HIV/AIDS of all race and ethnicty groups in the U.S.

According to Robert Foley, President/CEO of the National Native American AIDS Prevention Center, the recently released CDC supplemental surveillance report of HIV in the U.S. shows that within Native communities "there needs to be persistent efforts to combat community-based stigma caused by fear, misinformation, and discrimination. These continue to serve as barriers to people who know they need to access care, but are fearful of the social ramifications of doing so."

The report also revealed that Native communities are not accessing the needed care and attention following a HIV diagnosis:

• Only 75% of AI/AN individuals (13 years or older) that tested positive for HIV during 2010 were linked to medical care within 3 months after their diagnosis.
• Only 33% of AI/AN and 44% of Native Hawaiian individuals (13 years or older) that were diagnosed with HIV in 2008 had achieved viral suppression by the end of 2009. These are the 3rd and 4th lowest rates when compared to other races/ethnicities (CDC).

There are several organizations working hard to address these barriers - and many more - within Native communities, such as: Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, CA7AE: HIV/AIDS Prevention Project, Great Plains Tribal Chairmen's Health Board, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., and National Native American AIDS Prevention Center - to name a few.  

As we are reminded of the work that still needs to be done and barriers which still need to be broken, let us applaud all of the organizations which are working hard to do this and bring forth a new spring among Native communities.

 

 

 

 

International Women's Day: Everyday Heroes

by Erica Oakley, Humanitas Global Development

International Women's Day is our time to focus on the issues that are important to women and girls. We think it is also a time to draw attention to the great work that is being done by people and organizations around the world in addressing these needs.

In honor of International Women's Day, we at the Humanitas Global Development blog would like to recognize a few organizations - everyday heroes - that we think are doing tremendous work in tackling issues that impact women and girls:

• Women are the largest untapped pool of human potential according to Vital Voices. By investing, training and mentoring thousands of women every year, Vital Voices is working to unleash this untapped resource and transform the lives of women and those around them.
• According to Every Mother Counts, 800 women die every day from pregnancy and childbirth complications - the leading cause of death for women worldwide of reproductive age. Every Mother Counts is using their resources to ensure that women do not have to die giving life through informing, engaging and mobilizing the global community.
• Women and girls are deeply impacted by the effects of conflict and war and are often invisible victims. Women for Women International is working to change this by tirelessly assisting women in war torn areas through providing key services such as education, training, and counseling. 
• Approximately 10 million girls are married before the age of 18. The White Ribbon Alliance For Save Motherhood is making great strides in tackling not only child marriage but a whole host of women's and girl's issues from ensuring government accountability to family planning - and everything in between. 
• According to Pro Mujer, Latin America has one of the highest rates of gender inequality and income disparity in the world. Approximately 200 million people—almost one-third of the population—live below the poverty line. Of these, 70% lack access to health services. Pro Mujer is working to reverse this trend by providing financial, training and healthcare services to women in 5 Latin American countries. 
• With women accounting for the majority of the world's poorest and six out of ten of the world's hungry, Women Thrive Worldwide has their work cutout for them. But Women Thrive - through their tireless effort in being a voice for women around the globe - are ensuring that women's priorities are seen and heard.
• The International Center for Research on Women believes that women are integral to alleviating global poverty and that no woman or girl can reach her full potential if her basic right to a healthy, safe life is not honored.  Through their work on child marriage, agriculture, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and technology (just to name a few), they are empowering women, fighting for gender equality and combating poverty. 

These are just a few of the countless organizations who work tirelessly everyday to create a world where women and girls are valued and gender is no longer a barrier for living a happy, healthy and productive life.  On International Women's Day, we thank these organizations and people who are working to make the world a better place!

Join the Conversation: Tackling 21st Century Development Challenges

by Erica Oakley, Humanitas Global Development

Climate change, floods, droughts, wars, growing populations,  aging populations, and technology (to name a few) are all having huge impacts on development. The way we approach, strategize, implement and fund development is changing and will continue to change as we move further into the 21^st century.

Over the next few months, we at the Humanitas Global Development blog want to create a global conversation around the 21^st century challenges in development. We are looking for innovative solutions, ideas for sustainability, and approaches that build community demand to tackle pressing and emerging challenges such as:

• What should post-MDG development account for and what do we risk missing?
• How should we address water and sanitation needs for growing populations?  What's worked and what hasn't worked?
• What are the next major challenges in terms of gender equality and how should they be tackled?
• What are the main challenges and what should be the next set of goals for early childhood development and education?  
• How will we address the shifting global food demands reflecting a growing middle class?  What impact will this have on our natural resources, food production and distribution processes and health?
• What will be the impact of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s on a growing elderly population around the world? And what innovative responses, policies and research endeavors are we seeing?
• How are communities responding to the increased burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes? What are the lessons learned?
• What should be done to tackle the challenges and problems caused by climate change - from the impacts of floods and droughts to increased tumultuous weather? 

This list is not exhaustive. There are many more changes to 21^st century development not listed above. We’d like to hear your perspective on emerging issues and how you think the global community can address these challenges...and many more. 

Please email me at oakleye(at)humanitasglobal.com with a topic that you’d like to write on and I’ll send you more information. Help us make this an engaging and intriguing conversation on how we can tackle development in the 21^st century!

Soap it up on Global Handwashing Day!

By Erica Oakley, Humanitas Global Development

Simple hygienic practices, such as washing hands with soap and water, are essential to reducing the spread of diseases and infections. However, handwashing – especially with soap – is not strongly emphasized in many countries around the globe, resulting in millions suffering from preventable illness and death. 

Today, handwashing is high on the international agenda as we mark the 5^th anniversary of Global Handwashing Day with this year's theme: "Help More Children Reach Their 5th Birthday." According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrheal infections and acute respiratory infections –two of the highest causes of mortality in children under the age of 5 – can be greatly reduced through the simple act of handwashing. More than 1.87 million children die from related-diarrheal infections each year alone.  

Consistent handwashing can lower these numbers as well as reduce the transmission of acute upper respiratory infections such as the common cold and acute lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis. Instilling the consistent use of handwashing, particularly after using the bathroom and before eating, could reduce the rate of infection by approximately 25 percent.

Global Handwashing Day, observed annually on October 15, was established in 2008 by the Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing with Soap (PPPHW) – a coalition of 13 international stakeholders, including UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank, FHI360,  Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and others with the aim to educate children around the world about the life-saving importance of hand-washing for disease prevention.

The Western world once also suffered from high rates of preventable deaths caused by poor hygiene practices. The hygiene movement begain in the 1800s – led by Austrian physician, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, considered the father of hand hygiene – who observed the correlation between handwashing and the spread of disease.

In the decades that followed, a joint effort by physicians, governments, private sector and civil society drastically reduced the transmission of diseases and viruses in the western world through educating the public in a variety of ways (such as the advertisement to the right).

Today, a similar hygiene movement needs to be promoted and administered in countries around the globe to ensure that behaviors and beliefs related to handwashing continue to change. This movement needs to begin with children so that it becomes a learned and practiced behavior.

However, hand washing isn’t just for children. The regular and consistent use of soap and water can reduce sickness in a household – ensuring that adults are able to work more days, which can translate into more money being brought into the household. 

Governments, private sector, civil society, NGOs – all need to do their part to promote handwashing through working together and creating alliances, for a more effective and efficient impact.  2015 is around the corner, and in order to reach the target set by the MDGs, handwashing and sanitation needs to become an integral part of everyday life...for everyone. Handwashing is still the simplest and most cost-effective way to reduce sickness and save lives. 

International Day of the Girl

By Erica Oakley, Humanitas Global Development

As the world celebrates the first-ever International Day of the Girl, it is time to focus on how we can ensure that girls around the world become healthy, educated and prosperous women. We know that girls are often marginalized by society and that violence against girls is pervasive. We also know that crimes against girls frequently go unpunished or ignored. We know that girls are more affected by disease and poverty than boys, and that in many cultures, girls are considered a burden to the family – creating a cyclical effect of marginalization and violence. 

The picture is not entirely bleak. Girls are not weak or passive. They have a voice and many are fearless advocates of their rights. Girls such as 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai are role models for exhibiting tremendous courage and strength – even in the face of violent groups such as the Taliban. We often see headlines of girls being attacked for standing up against child marriage, sexual assault, female-genital mutilation – or most recently, Malala’s crusade for girls educational rights. 

Educating a girl is perhaps the single, most effective way to improve not only her own life, but also those of her entire family and future generations. Statistics have shown that educating a girl has a ripple effect in society. An educated girl is less likely to get married at a young age and is more likely to have healthy birth spacing and healthier children. She (and her child) are also less likely to succumb to the high rates of maternal and child mortality which plague much of the developing world. An educated girl is more likely to adequately provide for herself and her immediate and extended families. An education can provide a girl with ambition, hope, desire and ensure that she has the knowledge and tools to take charge and better her life.

However, to create this environment of change is nearly impossible for a girl to do on her own. She needs the support and assistance of her family and community. She needs society to change – to put girls' education at the forefront of government agendas and for individuals to realize the benefits of educating a girl. Education is a huge catalyst for a country's economic and social development. Societies where girls are violently targeted because of their desire to educate themselves and better their lives, are going to be societies left behind.   

 

  

Social Good Summit to be held in New York City

The third annual Social Good Summit kicks off this Saturday, September 22 in New York City. Humanitas Global team members are excited to be attending the three-day conference where “the most innovative technologists, influential minds and passionate activists” will come together to achieve “one shared goal: to unlock the potential of new media and technology to make the world a better place, and then to translate that potential into action.”

The Summit is hosted by Mashable, 92nd Street Y, the United Nations Foundation, Ericsson, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and will include over 90 speakers suggesting new and innovative ideas to address the Millenium Development Goals. For the first time, the Summit will extend beyond New York. On September 24, China and Kenya will join the conversation via Livestream.

The conversation begins with the Summit with the goal to spread and become “one of the biggest, most global and most powerful conversations the world has ever seen.” By bringing together a dynamic group of global leaders and activists, the Summit will be a platform for new and exciting ideas to combat global challenges. 

How will you contribute to this conversation?

Stay tuned for updates throughout the Summit and how Humanitas is contributing to this global conversation.

 

Family Planning Accelerates Improvements in Child Survival

Guest blog post by Maureen Norton, Family Planning/Reproductive Health Technical Advisor, Office of Population and Reproductive Health, USAID, Washington, D.C.

On a recent visit to northeast Bangladesh, I had the opportunity to visit rural postpartum women in their homes. My colleagues and I were undertaking site visits to a USAID program that provided integrated newborn, maternal and family planning services at the community level.  After we entered the home of our first visit, we congratulated the new mother, who was holding her newborn wrapped in a blanket in her arms. We asked her how many children she had. She replied quietly, “This was my twelfth pregnancy -- it is my fifth living child.” She explained that three children died as newborns, two were stillborn, and she had two miscarriages. The woman was only 32 years old. We heard similar stories from other women whom we interviewed.      

The first step to ensure that a child reaches their 5th birthday starts even before they are born. USAID promotes Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy as a vital family planning intervention that helps ensure that pregnancies occur at the healthiest times in a woman’s life.  Mothers and children are then more likely to survive and stay healthy. 

A USAID analysis found that, by preventing closely spaced births, family planning could save the lives of more than 1.6 million children under five annually. 

We recommend three key programmatic actions to strengthen family planning as an essential intervention for child survival:

1) Educate families on the use of family planning to ensure that pregnancies occur at the healthiest times of a woman’s life.  Healthy times for a pregnancy are:

• After age 18
• Before age 34
• At least 24 months after a live birth
• Six months after a miscarriage

When pregnancies occur before the age of 18, after the age of 34, and when they are too closely spaced, they are called high risk pregnancies. Family planning helps women avoid high risk pregnancies.

2) Expand the mix of available contraceptives, including long-acting, reversible methods, to help couples effectively delay, time, space, and limit pregnancies, to achieve their fertility intentions.

3) Enact policies to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend – especially policies that support job creation for women as well as girls’ education. In this way, women are empowered to become more involved in health decision-making.

Family planning can also improve infant survival by delaying the age at which a woman has her first pregnancy.  About 16 million girls ages 15 to 19 give birth every year. Babies born to young mothers under age 18 are more likely to be premature, have low birth weight, and suffer from complications of delivery.

When a mother dies, her children are less likely to survive. In the developing world, an estimated 90 percent of infants whose mothers die in childbirth will die by their first birthday. Family planning could prevent up to 40 percent of the 287,000 maternal deaths that occur each year. 

More than 215 million women worldwide want to delay or avoid pregnancy but are not using a modern method of contraception. Increasing access to family planning is essential to help women like those I met in Bangladesh and their children survive and stay healthy.  

Read the Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy issue brief to learn more about family planning’s role in child survival.  

This blog post is re-published with permission and is in conjunction with the Child Survival Call to Action, which was convened June 14-15 by the Governments of the United States, India, and Ethiopia, and is organized in close collaboration with UNICEF. This post reflects the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or Humanitas Global.