IHSJ Reader, December 21, 2011

IHSJ Reader     December 2011     Issue 14         

Note: Triple asterisk (***) indicates subscription-only sources.

FOREIGN AID REFORM

The Politics of Partnership: Why Taking a Risk May Actually Be the Smartest Thing US Foreign Aid Can Do (Gregory Adam, Oxfam America, December 13, 2011)
Oxfam America released a new report this week, with research from Haiti, Malawi, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Tanzania, outlining nine ways the United States can be a better foreign assistance partner. From encouraging commitments of long-term support, to showing trust for local leaders while improving transparency, this report calls on US policy makers to accept and manage risk as a necessary part of true partnership for aid effectiveness.

Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (4^th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness Outcome Document, December 1, 2011)
After arduous negotiations, government representatives at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) finalized common goals and principles for effective development. Though emerging economies such as China and India are not bound to agreements in this outcomes document, they did ultimately endorse the document under the premise of voluntary, South-South cooperation. Some established donors sought to weaken the outcomes documents in the final days of negotiation. A common set of monitoring standards that apply to everyone – new and traditional donors, as well as countries receiving aid – will be developed over the next six months to measure action towards improving local, institutional capacity for effective development. 

HIV/AIDS 

ICASA 2011: Stephen Lewis Warns “Reckless” Donors: How Dare You Decide Whether Africans Live or Die? (Stephen Lewis, Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service, December 7, 2011) In a speech delivered at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa last week, Stephen Lewis called on African political leaders to demand that funding for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) be increased and restored. Lewis cites the cancellation of Round 11 by the GFATM as betrayal, and asserts that donor countries should not be able to decide whether Africans live or die. He concludes with the observation that the Millennium Development Goals are not attainable for Africa without controlling the AIDS epidemic, for which continued funding is necessary.

UN Launches Plan to Accelerate Male Circumcision for AIDS Prevention in Africa (Press Release, December 5, 2011) The  Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) recently unveiled  a partnership with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to scale up voluntary medical male circumcision in Africa over the next five years as one measure of  preventing HIV  transmission. The expansion and rollout will focus on scaling up services in 14 priority countries in eastern and southern Africa, including Lesotho and Malawi. Voluntary medical male circumcision has been found to reduce the risk of HIV transmission from women to men by 60%. Focusing on national ownership, implementation of these strategies will serve as a high impact step in reaching an HIV-free generation.

Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention: The Cost, Impact, and Challenges of Accelerated Scale-Up in Southern and Eastern Africa (UNAIDS and PEPFAR Collection, PLoS, November 29, 2011) PEPFAR and UNAIDS released this collection of articles highlighting how scale up of voluntary medical male circumcision in eastern and southern African can help prevent HIV at an individual, community, and population level.

Reducing AIDS funding will deal a devastating blow (Joyce Kamwana, The Hill, December 2, 2011) 
In this piece Minister Binagwaho credits the government of Rwanda for their success in promoting an integrated, community-driven development process. By emphasizing the importance of empowering citizens through nationwide economic initiatives like using community cooperative savings mechanisms, nationwide programs have encouraged a spirit of independence. This spirit is the result of an unwavering commitment to the participatory process and the health and wealth of all Rwandan citizens.

RWANDA

HPV Vaccine in Rwanda: Different Disease, Same Double Standard (Agnes Binagwaho, Claire Wagner, Cameron Nutt, The Lancet, December 3, 2011)
In response to doubts about Rwanda’s national human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine rollout, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, cites research that directly refutes arguments against Rwanda’s progressive health policies. Given Rwanda’s successful vaccination coverage rates (upwards of 95%) and the known effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, the authors write that refusing to support strategies solely because of where women are born is a violation of human rights.

Health, Human Rights, and Democracy In Rwanda (Agnes Binagwaho, The Rwanda New Times, December 11, 2011)
In this piece Minister Binagwaho credits the government of Rwanda for their success in promoting an integrated, community-driven development process. By emphasizing the importance of empowering citizens through nationwide economic initiatives like using community cooperative savings mechanisms, nationwide programs have encouraged a spirit of independence. This spirit is the result of an unwavering commitment to the participatory process and the health and wealth of all Rwandan citizens.

MULTIMEDIA

The Beginning of the End of AIDS (World AIDS Day broadcast, ONE Campaign and (RED), December 1, 2011)  
Tune into this World AIDS Day broadcast, hosted by the ONE Campaign and (RED), to hear President Obama (at 0:38:10), George W. Bush (at 0:33:05), Bill Clinton (at 1:48:00), Bono, and others discuss the progress that has been made in the HIV/AIDS epidemic over the past thirty years and why evidence that treatment can prevent transmission could be the beginning of the end of AIDS.