Blog
Jan 18 2009
The Asia Pay for Performance Workshop Begins
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As last minute preparations here in Cebu continue and participants begin to arrive, it seems unbelievable that we have finally come to the point where all of our planning becomes reality: the Asia Pay for Performance Workshop, co-sponsored by USAID/Health Systems 20/20, AusAID, the Center for Global Development, Norad, and the World Bank, will officially begin Monday, January 19, 2009.
Aug 19 2008
Another critique of the Abuja target
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The Abuja target calls for African countries to spend 15% of their public budget on health, typically measured as funds allocated to the ministry of health.
Aug 13 2008
Is robbing Peter to pay Paul worth worrying about?
Submitted by
Few health systems topics received more attention at the IAC than the question of whether we should blame the advent of the AIDS virus as the cause of funding and resources being channeled away from the general health system (into vertical programs) or applaud the arrival of AIDS as the catalyst for the activism needed to identify the inadequacies of health care systems. Of course, as you would expect from persons attending an AIDS conference, just about everyone agreed that AIDS advocacy and funding efforts were strengthening health systems in general.
I tend to agree with those who were not concerned about how we arrived here, or the merits of one catalyst for change over another, but who were anxious to move forward. Various health systems and funding systems exist. There will always be vertical and horizontal funding streams. There will always be competing priorities. We should stop wasting time and resources discussing which one works better or which priority is more important. We need to move forward the best we can. As Sigrun Mogedal, Ambassador for AIDS and Global Health Initiatives Norway and Chair of GHWA said: We are in the midst of competing priorities and voices… We have to work across all sectors… We cannot wait until all these things are fixed. We have to live with the complexity and be involved under several streams of activity at the same time.
