Locating invisible lines of corruption within global health assistance
Have you ever traversed hat seemingly weird contradiction where you both want to donate to aid organisations, yet at the same time, are sceptical of the act itself? Fear not, for you are certainly not the only one. And neither is your intuition wrong. If anything, with the current state of the global health system, there leaves room for regular donors to be disheartened, and current sceptics to be somewhat boastful.
The past decade is likely to be hailed as a period of unprecedented activism for global health in international affairs. This particular brand of activism is characterised by unparalleled amounts of monetary aid, last totalling a sum of US$31.3 billion in
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The significance of this development lies in the fact that the complete eradication of just one disease from a country has the capacity to produce markedly positive differences in its overall landscape, particularly in alleviating pressures across areas such as poverty and social inequality.
On the flip side, this public fixation has led to a situation whereby AIDS and TB monopolise the funding pool at the expense of addressing other health areas. A look into the distribution of aid allocation within Botswana proves the case in point. In 2010, Botswana received more than 5 times the total amount of funding required for HIV/AIDS prevention. Its other health focus areas, by comparison, received little funding despite issues such as chronic and mental illnesses, as well as maternal healthcare, being the larger contributors to the overall disease burden within the
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Which, in simpler terms, is a matter of inequitable access to health services. This suggests the need to focus health equity development programmes on improving fairness in the allocation of health care resources.
Involvement with organisations that are ideologically underpinned by capitalism, such as that of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), should be approached by the global south with caution. As Tido von Schoen Angerer, Executive Director of the Access Campaign at Médecins Sans Frontières, explains, “[These organisations] wants the private sector to do more on global health… As these institutions are clearly also trying to influence policymaking, there are huge conflicts of interests”.
What the director alludes to is that the outcomes of health commercialisation run counter to the current trend where there is not only increasing recognition of the underlying determinants of health but also its enshrinement within government policies.
Before we close, let’s get one thing straight: Albeit its inefficiencies, the current system does not make injections of money redundant. Development assistance is indeed an important stream of resources that can be employed more efficiently to prevent and treat
This paper will step out of the comfort of the first world American lifestyle and look beyond to the health and social issues around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the leading stakeholder in advancing the awareness and support on global health issues along with the United Nations (UN) and other governmental and nongovernmental agencies. Only once the issues of these vulnerable people are identified can these organizations move forward in addressing and prioritizing the rapidly evolving global health agenda. The Millennium Development Goals will be defined briefly, however, since their goal completion date has ended, a future look at follow on program, Sustainable Development Goals seems the best place
If a health clinic providing basic services to the world’s most vulnerable people is withheld the large amount of foreign assistance that currently comes from the United States government, all diseases will flourish, including epidemics such as Zika and Ebola (Barry-Jester, 2016). We contribute to more unstable political environments (Crimm, 2007, p.615) and more refugees that we increasingly refuse to help when we take away aid that would countries meet the needs of their citizens.
The Journal of Global Health Perspectives is an online open-access research journal. In addition to publishing primary research they also publish articles that relate meaningful experiences, observations and reflections from members of the global health community. To publish an article in the journal the article had to be E mailed to them along with a signed copyright policy and indicate the category of the work. Current topics of interest are Child health inequality, Maternal health in India, Ebola eradication.
Government officials in Africa argue the inefficient response during the critical threshold and the amount of money spent on establishing an American health care system parallels the imperialism movement and has left the countries vulnerable to future outbreaks, indebted and currently still unprepared. The monetary “loans”, less than half of which actually reached affected countries last year failed to educate the public (Duval). This raises the question of owing money that was not distributed to tackle immediate threats but attempted to repair years of corruption and unstable health care
The world faced a stark reality at the turn of the century. Amidst unprecedented new wealth and powerful new technologies, millions were still getting sick and dying from diseases and life expectancies were actually falling. Therefore, in September 2000, 189 country representatives adopted the Millennium Development Goals to focus on time limited commitments to reduce poverty and promote human development in order to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other disease by 2015.(WHO, 2008). The challenge for meeting this deadline of goals was perceived as emergent and had a powerful effect for transforming the long-standing problem of global public health. It was perceived that globalization was putting the social cohesiveness of many countries under stress and that the health systems as key constituents of our contemporary societies were clearly not performing as well as they could and should.
Fifteen years ago, private aid for health was quite negligible in terms of its financial importance. It now represents about one billion dollars, mostly coming from foundations, which is about one-quarter of public aid for health in developing countries. Through the examples he quotes, Klarman has pinpointed how the government can offer incentives to encourage philanthropic contributions to health, in particular by using tax
Global health issue can be defined as health problems, issues, and concerning subjects that transcend international boundaries and are addressed by cooperative, multidisciplinary approached actions and solutions (Macfarlane, Jacobs, & Kaaya, 2008). Health issue shifts to a global health issue when a concerning subject inclines to influence global population (Koplan et al., 2009). Health issues need multidisciplinary approach in order to create care plan that fits for that population before it inclines to global health issue (Marusic, 2013. In situations where health issues as inclined to global health issues, it still needs multidisciplinary approach to create global care plan. Multidisciplinary approach many include international
One major health issue is the presence malaria in developing countries which affects half the world’s population in the poorest parts of the world. It is estimated that more than 3,000 children die from malaria every day. The UN, with the help of World Health Organization, launched the Rock Back Malaria Initiative in 1998, which is movement to improve the lives in those places and prevent the disease overall. A foundation Nothing but Nets was created by the UN to raise money and awareness for the cause. Sponsorships from big associations like the Major League Soccer, and the National Basketball Association and Junior Chamber International helped raise $35 million dollars and helped distribute to over 25 countries in Africa (Preventing Malaria Deaths). Yet international relations can also help countries understand diseases in their own country. I conducted an interview with Saba Danwala, an international health analyst at the US Department of Health and Human Services, who deals with working with developing countries analyzing the affections of infectious disease. She mentions that “International relations has a greater part to play [in a world with so much information] I see this for countries wanting to improve their health systems, for instance. The diplomats who speak to the higher powers in these countries can sway a president, for
Global health is defined as “health problems, issues, or concerns that transcend national borders” (Institute of Medicine, 1997, p. 2). Koplan (2009) proposed a new definition for global health which he described as an “area for study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide” (para, 7). Global health emphasizes transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions from an interdisciplinary perspective and blends population health and clinical care.
Before my time abroad, I found that it was very easy to become caught up in the trivial aspects of life and forget to be grateful for the opportunities readily available to me. Suffering, poverty, and oppression are common in parts of the world and while I may never fully understand what people who face these challenges go through on a daily basis, I feel that it is important to utilize my education and experience to help alleviate these stresses on the global community. I wholeheartedly believe that continuing my education and working with the professionals at an institution abroad will provide me with the knowledge and experience to obtain a meaningful position in the Health Economics and Policy arena.
Did you know that third world countries like Rwanda, Africa could use so much from from other countries to treat some of their diseases. Not all countries have the supplies needed to treat diseases that they have problems with. Countries like Rwanda are low end poor countries and can not afford medications that are needed to help treat their people. When we send supplies over to them they really appreciate it because they can really use some of the supplies they receive. The little things that we do for other countries can make big differences. Not only do they need medications to help treat, they also need supplies to help prevent as well. The less people that are becoming infected reduces the amount of people that Rwanda has to try to treat. The less people that need treated, the faster others will be treated and the quicker the infection rates will reduce . The prevention of these
Thus, finding methods of educating people, and providing medical aid for these preventable diseases can avoid many deaths. Second reason for attending global health issue is for balancing resources. According to The Lancet Journal, ninety percent of the world’s health care resources are spent on diseases that affect only ten percent of the world’s population. (Norris, 2009) Therefore, ensuring that resources are evenly distributed throughout the world would assist to limit the diseases from spreading from country to country. Third, global health can influence Canadians indirectly such as, the increase of diseases. Some of these diseases becoming more prevalent is HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB and are increasing poverty and political instability within countries. (Worldwide HIV & AIDS Statistics, 2009) Thus, global health should be a concern because it can help prevent civil conflict in other countries. (Worldwide HIV & AIDS Statistics, 2009) Fourth, global health should be a concern across all nations as there is more contact amongst people because of globalization diseases occurs at a faster rate. Globalization is defined as a modern phenomenon process by which countries and peoples are increasingly interconnected, integrated, and interdependent that occurred over centuries. (Andrews, 2010) Since the world is increasingly becoming interconnected, diseases can travel from nation to nation and it can cause
The existing literature on Global Health suggests that amid the spread of globalization, improvements in human health have been made over the last fifty years, but the disappearance of transnational borders has also created health risks at the international level. Research on the topic of global health indicates that real world occurrences have provoked the perceived need for cooperation in the international health sector (Skolnik 2012, pg. 336-342). Disease are not confined by state boundaries and this has led to several health issues that paradigmatically shifted international health into global health. One of the most noted events that brought attention to global health includes the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This pandemic illustrates one of the most significant challenges facing global health today-- the spread of infectious diseases caused by global factors. The movement of goods and services, and the growth of international trade have increased human mobility, thus mobilizing disease and infections as well. Current research analyzes how international trade, economic development, cultural exchanges, and human movement and travel have contributed to the prevention and control of infectious disease such as HIV, malaria, SARS, etc. (Knobler, Mahmoud 2006). The disparities between public health in developed and undeveloped nations has not been explored fully in the discipline of Global Health. By exploring historical trends of global health, this paper will attempt to theorize how
Although volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontiers are commonly stationed in various countries with a dire healthcare worker shortage, regions with refugee camps and internally displaced persons are also a focus for this organization. Refugees and internally displaced persons often come from war torn regions and live in close confines with poor sanitation and limited resources. These living situations become a breeding ground for diseases and other health issues like malnutrition, yet the individuals lack access to any sort of healthcare. The organization also responds quickly when regions suddenly experience an increased need for healthcare, for example in times of an epidemic or a natural disaster. Medecins Sans Frontiers’ involvement across its varying regions and their attempt to address a broad spectrum of healthcare truly show how altruistic the organization is to individuals regardless of race, gender, or religion.
Residing in a Swiss conference-room, etched with a Mahogany interior and touched with a faintly Modern flare, rests the decision-making organ of the World Health Organization(WHO)—the World Health Assembly(WHA). The Assembly, which convenes annually every May in Geneva to debate the international health agenda, may cover topics that vary from the Pacific SARS crisis to the Zika virus epidemic. Tasked as a delegate from the NCD Alliance—which aims to strengthen international health systems to combat the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases— I had the lofty task of interviewing officers of various sectors and later reporting on the institutions' current political and interventional endeavors as it relates to