The G20 said the World Bank trust fund for agricultural investment in poor countries that they called for on Friday “should be designed so that money will be disbursed quickly and countries can decide for themselves where they want it spent,” Reuters reports. Leaders, who wrapped up their meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last week, said, “We call on the World Bank to work with interested donors and organizations to develop a multilateral trust fund to scale up agricultural assistance to lowincome countries.”

According to Reuters, “[a]gricultural investment in poor countries has shrunk over the last decade as development agencies focused more on health issues, including malaria and HIV/AIDS.” The G20 set forth no timeline for the funds creation, the news service reports (Wroughton, 9/25).

The Pittsburgh PostGazette examines advocates reaction to commitments made at the summit, which include, “the need to help poor countries weather the tumultuous financial climate; reform the membership of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to include more of the poorest countries; carry forward the framework of the G8 agreement on food security in Italy; and to deliver on the $100 billion the G8 promised to loan developing countries.”

Save the Childrens Michael Klosson said, “[W]e urge the G20 to go beyond what they said in Pittsburgh. To acknowledge that development aid is the very foundation for an economic recovery.” Nine million children under age 5 will die this year from mostly treatable or preventable causes, according to Klosson (9/26).

The full Leaders Statement from the summit is available online.

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

U.S. Optimistic About Zimbabwe Health System Revitalization

The U.S. plans to support efforts to develop a sustainable health system in Zimbabwe and increase its capacity to treat people, Eric Goosby, U.S. global AIDS Coordinator for PEPFAR, said on Wednesday after a visit to the country with USAID and CDC officials, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. Goosby said he is “optimistic” that the Zimbabwe PEPFAR teams experience will be used “to develop a response that fits the existing health infrastructure, supports it and reinforces it in a way that creates a durable and lasting response” (9/2).

PLoS Medicine Examines AgeShift Of Dengue Fever Distribution In Thailand

An analysis of data from Thailands 72 provinces led researchers from Johns Hopkins University to discover that decreases in birth and death are behind a shift in age distribution of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the country, according to a PLoS Medicine study (Cummings et al., 9/1). In an accompanying commentary, authors explore the shifting patterns in dengue and what it means for clinical practice and future vaccination strategies (Simmons/Farrar, 9/1).

Blog Advance Market Commitments Could Improve U.S. Foreign Aid

Though the idea of the “Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a new marketbased financing mechanism that accelerates the delivery of lifesaving vaccines for children worldwide,” originated among American global health experts, the U.S. was on “the sidelines observing instead of leading the launch of the first mechanism of this kind,” according a Huffington Post blog entry. “President Obama and our Congress can move the United States from the sidelines to the frontlines of this issue by calling for new AMCs to tackle infectious diseases, and then backing those calls with financial support,” the authors write. “Science is one of the comparative advantages of our knowledgebased economy, and focusing on our prowess in providing better tools to address diseases of poverty is one of the best forms of foreign aid,” they write (Levine/Berkley, 9/2).

Blog U.S. Global Development Policy, State Department Reviews Are An Important Opportunity

The recent Presidential Study Directive, which initiates a review of U.S. global development policy and the State Departments recently launched Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review are “an extremely important opportunity to pull all the pieces out there right now aimed at elevating development and modernizing foreign assistance into one smart strategy,” according to a blog post on the Huffington Post. The author outlines how the reviews and foreign assistance reform should ideally proceed. “Key to a successful integration of the three important activities is coordination between and within the executive and legislative branches of government,” she notes (Herrling, 9/1).

Researchers Analyze The Recipients Of A Decade Worth Of Health Aid

A review of 10 years of health aid appearing in the WHO Bulletin (.pdf) revealed “significant imbalances in the allocation of health aid which run counter to internationally recognized principles of effective aid,” and “[c]ountries with comparable levels of poverty and health need receive remarkably different levels of aid.” Additionally, the authors write, “our findings suggest that control over spending decisions at the country level is limited, as global and regional priorities dominate aid allocation” (Piva/Dodd, 8/25).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Aid agencies on Tuesday “appealed for better access” to “tens of thousands” of people in Yemen who have been displaced by violence and are facing “a high risk of outbreaks of malaria and diarrhoeal diseases among the already malnourished population,” Reuters reports.

An estimated 35,000 people have fled after violence escalated over the past two weeks, UNICEF said. “Some 120,000 had been made homeless by earlier rounds of fighting in an intermittent conflict that began in 2004,” according to Reuters (Nebehay, 8/25).

Ann Veneman, the director of UNICEF, said aid workers are struggling to shelter, and to feed and safeguard the health of an evergrowing body of internally displaced people. Veneman said that children and women are the “majority of the displaced,” the National reports.

“Some internally displaced people are displaced for the second or third time,” Claire Bourgeois, the U.N.s refugee chief in Yemen, said (Reinl, 8/26).

Elisabeth Byrs, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said, “Insecurity has made it difficult for the humanitarian community to access the affected population and obtain accurate information on numbers, locations and needs.” She added that Yemens foreign minister indicated that the government would consider opening a humanitarian corridor, Reuters writes.

“Humanitarian workers must be protected and given safe passage to provide emergency aid,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement (8/25).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

The American Red Cross has advice and safety tips for anyone planning a trip to the beach along the U.S. East Coast this weekend as experts predict Hurricane Bill may cause dangerous waves and rip tides along the shore.

Hurricane Bill is currently a Category Three storm with winds blowing up to 125 mph, and experts say the storm could strengthen over the open Atlantic. The first hurricane of 2009 is expected to travel very close to Bermuda and make landfall in Canada. Forecasters are predicting dangerous waves and rip tides all along the coast over the next several days.

Red Cross says beachgoers should be aware of how dangerous rip currents are, and swim only at beaches with lifeguards in the designated swimming area. Rip currents can form in any large open water area such as low spots and breaks in sandbars, or near structures such as jetties and piers. A band of water a few feet wide may rush back through a gap in a sandbar made by breaking waves.

If caught in a rip current, stay calm and dont fight the current.

Swim parallel to shore until free of the current

Once free, turn and swim toward shore

If the swimmer feels they wont make it in to the shore, they should draw attention to themselves by waving and calling for help

When at the beach, check conditions before entering the water. Check to see if any warning flags are up or ask a lifeguard about water conditions, beach conditions, or any potential hazards.

The Red Cross offers swimming and water safety courses for people of all ages and abilities. Each year, more than 2 million people participate in Red Cross swimming and water safety programs. Visit RedCross.org for additional water safety tips and for information on our swimming programs. Contact your local chapter to find out which aquatic facilities offer Red Cross swimming courses.

About the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nations blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization not a government agency and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission.

After arriving in South Africa on Thursday as part of her 11day African tour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has “encouraged South Africa to take a leadership role on the political crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe,” Bloomberg reports. “South Africa is very aware of the challenges posed by the political crisis in Zimbabwe, because South Africa has 3 million refugees from Zimbabwe,” Clinton said (Zacharia, 8/7). On Friday morning, Clinton met with South Africas Minister of International Relations and Cooperations Maite NkoanaMashabane at the Presidential Guest House in Pretoria to “establish a new formal counsel between the two countries,” IOL reports (Mashego, 8/7). Also on Friday, she will meet with former South African President Nelson Mandela and address business leaders, VOA News reports (8/7).

During her time in the country, Clinton is scheduled to meet with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, according to the BBC. She will “attend a conference with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi before attending National Womens Day events” in Pretoria (8/7). “She will also tour a clinic handling South Africas AIDS epidemic and head Saturday to the coastal city of Durban for talks with President Jacob Zuma,” Agence FrancePresse reports (Tandon, 8/7).

According to the Seattle Times blog, “Business of Giving,” the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis has “used a visit by Clinton and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to raise the question of whether U.S. tax dollars for foodrelated aid to Africa are being spent wisely.” The blog examines some opinions that U.S. food security policies take a “narrow approach” and put “too much emphasis on biotechnology,” and includes information about a report commissioned by the World Bank and U.N. to evaluate how agricultural methods affect hunger and poverty, rural livelihoods, health and sustainable development. It also examines the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which is a grantee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Heim, 8/6).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off a seven country, 11day trip “her longest overseas journey to date as the top U.S. diplomat by flying Monday night to Kenya where she will address an African trade and development forum, meet top Kenyan officials and see the beleaguered president of lawless Somalias interim government,” the Associated Press reports. During the trip, Clinton is expected to “underscore the importance of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and pledge continuing U.S. backing for health care initiatives in Africa,” the AP writes (Lee, 8/3).

Clinton will also address food security in Africa, according to VOA News. “Africa relies on foreign aid to feed itself,” said George Ayittey, an economist. “For Africa to move forward, it needs to produce enough food to feed itself and that is where the focus by Clinton would be extremely helpful,” he said (Block, 8/4).

Sky News reports that Clinton is “expected to reiterate the policy objectives laid out by President Obama during his brief visit to Ghana last month,” which include an increase in U.S. aid for the continent, but also the need for good governance in Africa (Hurd, 8/4). Johnnie Carson the “top U.S official for Africa,” who is traveling with Clinton said, “The United States is desirous of having a broadbased relationship with the continent that its not simply interested in providing aid but also opening up and encouraging business opportunities,” VOA News writes (8/4).

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, where “massive rape” has been committed during the 15years of civil strife, “Clinton will meet with some of the victims of that violence to underscore the United States commitment ending genderbased violence,” CNN reports. Clinton will also visit South Africa, Nigeria, Angola, Liberia and Cape Verde (Dougherty, 8/3).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.