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  • African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) Meeting in Ghana The fifth annual international conference of the African Science Academy Development Initiative (ASADI) will be held Nov. 9-11 in Accra, Ghana, in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. The theme of this year's conference will be improving maternal, newborn, and child health in Africa, which will be discussed by top experts from around the world. ASADI V will kick off with the release of Science in Action: Saving the Lives of Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children, a new report by several African science academies, assessing the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing maternal and childhood mortality -- the focus of U.N. Millennium Development Goals Four and Five -- in sub-Saharan Africa. The report will include estimates of lives that could be saved if proven scientific methods reached more parts of Africa. 11/9
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10
  • Meeting HIV/AIDS Cost Demands: Is The Global Response Working? The November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs focuses on key global health challenges – including the economic, political, scientific and ethical ones – facing world policymakers in their response to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Over the next several years, the world could face a funding shortfall that would prevent millions more with HIV/AIDS from gaining access to antiretroviral drugs. Yet over the long-term, the world could also take critical steps to slash the global burden of HIV-AIDS – and the costs of battling the pandemic – by half. 11/10

G8 Leaders Launch $20B Initiative To Help Farmers In Developing Countries

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Friday, July 10, 2009

The Washington Post reports: "Leaders of the world's major economies pledged Friday to raise $20 billion over the next three years for food and agricultural aid to the world's most impoverished countries." According to Obama administration officials, "the U.S. will contribute at least $3.5 billion over the next three years to the worldwide effort," which in addition to the funding, "hopes to better coordinate global food aid efforts and work through initiatives already in place in poor countries around the world, rather than creating new plans," the Washington Post reports (Fletcher, 7/10). 

According to Reuters, the U.N. "says the number of malnourished people has risen over the past two years and is expected to top 1.02 billion this year, reversing a four-decade trend of declines." Also on Friday, African leaders said they would "voice their concerns" about the G8 countries' unfulfilled aid promises, Reuters reports. Ethiopian premier Meles Zenawi said, "The key message for us is to ask the G8 to live up to their commitments" (Stewart/Heller, 7/10). 

In a related article, IRIN examines President Obama's desire to shift "to focus on agricultural development" in U.S.-supported countries, "rather than having them remain recipients." The change "comes hot on the heels of the 2008 food price crisis, which prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to call for better governance of food security," IRIN writes, adding that the "move towards development does not necessarily portend the end of food aid" (7/9).

CQ Transcript Wire/Washington Post published a transcript of President Obama's remarks to the G8 summit (7/9).

The Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report is published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.