UPDATED WITH INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS The Financing for Development meeting ended last night in Addis Ababa with the UK Secretary of State for Development hailing it as "a historic international deal that takes us beyond aid." Justine Greening went on to say, "It is the first ever agreement that allows us to harness private sector investment and … [Read more...] about The Addis deal that will “turbo charge development”
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The failure of global health advocacy spelled out in numbers
No fashionable university is without its own department doing studies and advocacy on global health these days and NGOs and consultancies proliferate. Richard Horton and his team at The Lancet seem to produce ever more elaborate reports and commissions demanding an extra $30 billion here or $50 billion there. None of them tell you that funding for … [Read more...] about The failure of global health advocacy spelled out in numbers
International declarations and treaties don’t change things — Tweets do
There was a time when international declarations changed the world. Maybe some still do but increasingly leaders communicate in 140 characters, not 20-page communiqués. Even international agreements and treaties may not be worth the paper they're written on, much less the thousands of days of staff time that go into them, according to an elegant … [Read more...] about International declarations and treaties don’t change things — Tweets do
A few brave psychiatrists speak out for #benzodiazepines
One of my first experiences of a media witch hunt came in the late 1980s: the British media had decided that Ativan (lorazepam) caused addiction. The "withdrawal symptoms" were remarkably similar to the anxiety and panic attacks which benzodiazepines are designed to treat but Roger Cook, a swahbuckling tabloid TV journalist, did not allow this to … [Read more...] about A few brave psychiatrists speak out for #benzodiazepines
Poll: Chinese want action on climate more than Europeans or Americans
The Chinese public want action on climate change more than people in 14 other countries, according to YouGov. The respected polling company found that 60 percent of Chinese want their government to take a leadership rôle in the Paris climate negotiations, versus only 44 percent of Americans and 41 percent of British people. One interpretation of … [Read more...] about Poll: Chinese want action on climate more than Europeans or Americans
WHO gets interesting on IP
Two interesting things were announced by WHO over the last week: first, the recommendation to extend the Essential Drugs List (EDL) to a few anticancer biologicals and to many of the latest generation of antivirals to treat hepatitis C; and second, the publication of research commissioned by WHO on the patent status of those new-generation … [Read more...] about WHO gets interesting on IP
Award-winning spot on gender violence
Mark Chataway is very proud to be on the board of Engender Health. They've just screened this brilliant, award-winning ad from Tanzania for us. It's about domestic violence but watch until the end! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LCFw5sGSPw … [Read more...] about Award-winning spot on gender violence
Does bad qualitative research guide US policy?
Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control posted an interesting article (in advance of publication in Emerging Infectious Diseases) on attitudes to antibiotic resistance amongst primary care providers. It is full of good ideas and it might even reflect what US providers think. As a basis for public policy, though, it is dangerously inadequate. … [Read more...] about Does bad qualitative research guide US policy?
UK parliamentary report on R&D for neglected diseases focuses on …. medieval Venice
This summer, an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Tuberculosis of the UK Parliament produced a report on research and development for diseases that affect poor people. This was admirable, except that the report has little to do with global health R&D and instead concentrates on radical changes to the system of patents and intellectual … [Read more...] about UK parliamentary report on R&D for neglected diseases focuses on …. medieval Venice
What drives Hamas? Fanaticism? Probably it’s understanding opinion polls #Gaza #Palestine
To watch CNN, Al Jazeera or the BBC, you would think that Hamas is driven by some deep-seated religious ideology or by a fanatical loathing of Zionism and Israel. Gazans, says this narrative, are more and more drawn to this extreme vision of the world by defiance in the face of Israeli attacks. It is easy to see why the world looks that … [Read more...] about What drives Hamas? Fanaticism? Probably it’s understanding opinion polls #Gaza #Palestine
The Three Commitments
Why Consultants end up not telling the truth
The worst kind of market research interviewing technique ever
Why bright people can’t explain themselves
