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11. Quantifying the Quality of Health Aid: Health QuODA

Author:
Amanda Glassman and Denizhan Duran
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Health is one of the largest and most complex sectors of foreign aid: in recent years, about 15 cents of every aid dollar went to global health. While health is often cited as one of the few undisputed aid success stories, there is little quantitative analysis of the quality of health aid, and some studies suggest that health aid does not necessarily improve health outcomes.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Health, Foreign Aid, and Health Care Policy

12. Global Health and the New Bottom Billion: How Funders Should Respond to Shifts in Global Poverty and Disease Burden

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Andy Sumner, and Denizhan Duran
Publication Date:
01-2012
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
After a decade of rapid economic growth, many developing countries have attained middle-income status. But poverty reduction in these countries has not kept pace with economic growth. As a result, most of the world's poor—up to a billion people—now live in these new middle-income countries (MICs), making up a “new bottom billion.” As the new MICs are home to most of the world's poor, they also carry the majority of the global disease burden. This poses a challenge to global health agencies, in particular the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund, which are accustomed to disbursing funds on the assumption that the majority of poor people live in poor countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Health, and Poverty

13. An Index of the Quality of Official Development Assistance in Health

Author:
Amanda Glassman and Denizhan Duran
Publication Date:
02-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Health is one of the largest and most complex aid sectors: 16 percent of all aid went to the health sector in 2009. While many stress the importance of aid effectiveness, there are limited quantitative analyses of the quality of health aid. In this paper, we apply Birdsall and Kharas's Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) methodology to rank donors across 23 indicators of aid effectiveness in health. We present our results, track progress from 2008 to 2009, compare health to overall aid, discuss our limitations, and call for more transparent and relevant aid data in the sector level as well as the need to focus on impact and results.
Topic:
Development, Health, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, and Foreign Aid

14. Incentives for Life: Cash-on-Delivery Aid for Tobacco Control in Developing Countries

Author:
Amanda Glassman and Thomas J. Bollyky
Publication Date:
04-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Fewer people are smoking in the United States, Europe, and most of the developing world. Excise taxes, bans on smoking in public places, and graphic health warnings are achieving such dramatic reductions in tobacco use in developed countries that a recent Citigroup Bank investment analysis speculated that smoking could virtually disappear in wealthy countries over the next thirty to fifty years.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Gender Issues, International Trade and Finance, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

15. Adolescent Fertility in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Effects and Solutions

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Kate McQueston, and Rachel Silverman
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Adolescent fertility in low- and middle-income countries presents a severe impediment to development and can lead to school dropout, lost productivity, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. However, there is debate about whether adolescent pregnancy is a problem in and of itself or merely symptomatic of deeper, ingrained disadvantage. To inform policy choices and create a revised research agenda for population and development, this paper aggregates recent quantitative evidence on the socioeconomic consequences of and methods to reduce of teenage pregnancy in the developing world. The review finds variable results for all indicator types with the partial exception of knowledge-based indicators, which increased in response to almost all evaluating interventions, though it is not clear that such interventions necessarily lead to short- or long term-behavior change. The evidence base supporting the effectiveness of conditional cash transfers was relatively strong in comparison to other interventions. Similarly, programs that lowered barriers to attending school or increased the opportunity cost of school absence are also supported by the literature. On the basis of these findings, the authors argue that donors should adopt a rights-based approach to adolescent fertility and shift their focus from the proximate to distal causes of pregnancy, including human rights abuses, gender inequality, child marriage, and socioeconomic marginalization. Further research should be conducted to strengthen the evidence base by 1) establishing causality, 2) understanding the differential impacts of adolescent fertility in different contexts, and 3) investigating other the impact of adolescent fertility on other socioeconomic outcomes, such as labor participation, productivity, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty.
Topic:
Democratization, Demographics, Development, Economics, Foreign Aid, and Youth Culture

16. A Commitment to Vaccination Index: Measuring Government Progress toward Global Immunization

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Denizhan Duran, and Juan Ignacio Zoloa
Publication Date:
08-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Vaccination is among the most cost-effective health interventions and has attracted ever greater levels of investment from public and private funders. However, some countries, mainly populous lower-middle-income countries, are lagging behind in vaccination financing and performance.
Topic:
Development, Foreign Aid, and Health Care Policy

17. GAVI's Future: Steps to Build Strategic Leadership, Financial Sustainability, and Better Partnerships

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Lisa Carty, J. Stephen Morrison, and Margaret Reeves
Publication Date:
06-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
On June 13, the GAVI Alliance convenes its first pledging conference in London with the aim of securing $3.7 billion to immunize an additional 250 million children by 2015. Founded in 2000, GAVI is an innovative partnership that combines donors, partner governments, UNICEF, WHO, civil society, and the private sector. It is designed to accelerate the financing and delivery of selected vaccines and related health services to the world's most disadvantaged populations. As GAVI enters its second decade of operations, it has established itself as a quiet success. And as it strives to sustain and expand its model of operations, it simultaneously strives to make itself better known and understood; better led, managed, and resourced; better assured of essential high-level political and financial support; and better served by well-functioning relations with its many essential partners.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Health, and Foreign Aid

18. The Health Systems Funding Platform: Resolving Tensions between the Aid and Development Effectiveness Agendas

Author:
Amanda Glassman and William Savedoff
Publication Date:
07-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Global health aid is exceedingly complex. It encompasses more than one hundred bilateral agencies, global funds, and independent initiatives that interact with an equally complex and diverse set of institutions involved in financing and providing health care in developing countries. Numerous efforts have been made to better coordinate these activities in the interest of making them more effective. The Health Systems Funding Platform (the Platform) is one of the most recent of these initiatives. Established in 2009, the Platform has advanced farthest in two countries, Ethiopia and Nepal, and is currently expanding to several others. This paper briefly assesses the Platform and argues that the way the initiative is proceeding differs little from prior initiatives, such as sector- wide approaches and budget support. However, the initiative does represent an opportunity to make global health aid more effective if it were to deepen its commitment to improving information for policy, link funding explicitly to well-chosen independently verified indicators, and establish an evaluation strategy to learn from its experience.
Topic:
Development, Health, International Cooperation, International Organization, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Nepal and Ethiopia

19. Affordable Interventions to Prevent Noncommunicable Diseases Worldwide

Author:
Amanda Glassman and Kate McQueston
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and mental illnesses are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Surprisingly, the burden is especially high in developing countries, which bear 80 percent of deaths due to NCDs. Four main factors are at fault: tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, and alcohol use. The good news is that much of the NCD burden can be prevented through interventions that are affordable in most countries. The United States can help now by taking five low-cost or no-cost steps:End tariff-reducing trade practices for tobacco.Partner with public and private donors.Leverage U.S. influence in multilateral development institutions.Exploit synergies between disease control and other development projects.Encourage evidence-informed budget allocation.
Topic:
Development, Health, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Nations

20. Global Health and the New Bottom Billion: What Do Shifts in Global Poverty and the Global Disease Burden Mean for GAVI and the Global Fund?

Author:
Amanda Glassman, Andy Sumner, and Denizhan Duran
Publication Date:
10-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
After a decade of rapid growth in average incomes, many countries have attained middle-income country (MIC) status. At the same time, the total number of poor people hasn't fallen as much as one might expect and, as a result, most of the world's poor now live in MICs. In fact, there are up to a billion poor people or a 'new bottom billion' living not in the world's poorest countries but in MICs. Not only has the global distribution of poverty shifted to MICs, so has the global disease burden. This paper examines the implications of this 'new bottom billion' for global health efforts and recommends a tailored middle-income strategy for the Global Fund and GAVI. The paper describes trends in the global distribution of poverty, preventable infectious diseases, and health aid response to date; revisits the rationale for health aid through agencies like GAVI and the Global Fund; and proposes a new MIC strategy and components, concluding with recommendations.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Health, and Poverty