A small and medium enterprise development initiative sponsored by the Results for Development Institute (R4D) has won the early entry prize by Ashoka Changemakers as part of the G-20 SME Finance Challenge. The project, conceived by R4D Senior Fellow David Stevens and called “The Local Currency Guaranteed Development Bond SME Loan Program” was honored from among 86 early entrants to the competition, which is open to additional entrants through September 5, 2010.

View the project web video below:

As a publicly accessible global knowledge platform consisting of a network of partners that collect, analyze, and disseminate information about Health Market Innovations in developing countries, the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) website facilitates the exchange of knowledge and the creation of strategic linkages among key stakeholders.

The Transparency and Accountability Program (TAP) will officially launch its most recent book, From the Ground Up: Improving Government Performance with Independent Monitoring Organizations, today in London.

How much will the fight against AIDS cost in the coming years, who will pay for it in the midst of global economic crisis and competing spending priorities, and how can governments better use their scarce AIDS resources to have the greatest impact on the epidemic?

On Friday, the 63rd World Health Assembly passed a resolution called, “Strengthening the capacity of governments to constructively engage the private sector in providing essential health-care services,” spearheaded by the delegation from Thailand.

In the next installment of the on-going series, “New Visions for Improving Health Care in the Developing World,” Results for Development (R4D) and the Global Health Council (GHC) will consider the advantages and pitfalls of the private sector’s involvement in healthcare. Health systems require strong public and private actors, and this session will consider how policy makers can incentivize private sector actors to help meet national health system goals.

R4D Managing Director Robert Hecht and the South African co-chairs of the aids2031 study on the country’s long-term costs and financing of AIDS met with the Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, in Cape Town to discuss the study’s findings and recommendations.

This WHO-hosted symposium aims at improving the scientific evidence needed by health policy-makers and practitioners to inform their decisions related to accelerating universal health coverage. On November 16th-19th, 2010 researchers, policy-makers, funders, and other stakeholders will gather in Montreux to share evidence, identify significant knowledge gaps, and set a research agenda that reflects the needs of low and middle-income countries.

The Symposium is structured around two main streams:

1. State of the Art Research
2. State of the Art Research Methods

At a major launch event of the Center for Strategic International Studies’ (CSIS) Commission on Smart Global Health Policy in Washington today, a policy paper authored by R4D for the CSIS was released, addressing the future role of the U.S. government in innovative financing for health.

Nicholas Burnett, who heads up the Education group at R4D, recently published a piece in Global Magazine's special feature, "2010: A turning point in achieving education for all." The article, Getting inclusive education back on track after the financial crisis, discusses the impact of the global economic crisis on achieving Education for All and addresses areas of opportunity for innovative financing mechanisms and better allocation of resources.

As part of our ongoing initiative to establish a Joint Learning Network on Universal Health Coverage, R4D hosted Dr. Tsung-Mei Cheng of Princeton University for a seminar on Taiwan’s national health insurance system, which was set up in the 1990s.

This WHO-hosted symposium aims at improving the scientific evidence needed by health policy-makers and practitioners to inform their decisions related to accelerating universal health coverage. On November 16th-19th, 2010 researchers, policy-makers, funders, and other stakeholders will gather in Montreux to share evidence, identify significant knowledge gaps, and set a research agenda that reflects the needs of low and middle-income countries.

As part of efforts to build international benchmarks for the quality of public spending and promote informed decisions on resource allocations in developing countries, the Transparency and Accountability Program (TAP) and Global Development Network co-hosted the first peer review workshop for the Strengthening Institutions program in Prague on January 13th-15th.

NPR’s Brenda Wilson interviewed key experts on ways to retool current AIDS strategies, shifting from the emergency response mentality of the past to a longer-term view of policies that will be more efficient, effective, and sustainable.

The Transparency and Accountability Program (TAP) is pleased to announce that its book, “How to Improve Governance,” will soon be published in French. TAP is excited to extend its reach to a new audience with this  version which is scheduled to release in August 2011.

In preparation for World AIDS Day, the BBC invited Farzana Muhib, R4D's coordinator for the aids2031 Costs and Financing Project, to discuss future cost and financing scenarios for the global AIDS epidemic in their Health Check spotlight, "The Future for HIV/AIDS Funding."  Ms. Muhib highlighted the importance of "tough choice" spending policy decisions and more efficient management of resources now in order to curb future costs of the epidemic and achieve better health outcomes.

R4D’s Gina Lagomarsino and David de Ferranti are two of the co-authors of a Lancet commentary published in the November 7, 2009 issue. The piece calls on policy makers to focus more on their role as stewards of both public and private actors within the health system.

The commentary highlights key points from a comprehensive R4D report on the same topic which was published in May.

Other co-authors include Ariel Pablos-Mendez, Stefan Nachuk, Sania Nishtar and Suwit Wibulpolprasert.

By the year 2031, the AIDS pandemic will enter its 50th year, and funding needed to fight the pandemic in developing countries could reach as much as $35 billion annually – unless wise choices are made today to spend more efficiently and focus on prevention activities that can lower the number of new infections in the future and moderate costs for treatment and other measures to mitigate the negative impacts of AIDS on individuals and their communities.

The aids2031 Costs and Financing Project is pleased to be able to share eleven papers of our technical reports series. The papers address a range of issues including the estimation of future AIDS resource needs, the various options for financing, and the sociopolitical landscape in which AIDS programs are implemented. Papers are available for download here. A synthesis report combining the findings from the technical reports will be available in the coming months.

From September 21-23, 2009, MLI hosted the Negotiating Health Development Leadership Training in Kathmandu, Nepal for the senior team from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP). Responding to a request for enhanced leadership skills from the MoHP, the workshop, facilitated by CMPartners, offered a set of tools and best-practices in negotiation, conflict management and effective communication. The facilitators emphasised the practical application of these tools in the everyday lives of the senior leadership at the MoHP.

Aug 21, Accra, GHANA – The Ghana News Agency recently picked up a story about one of our newest projects, an assessment of the private health sector in Ghana (Click here for project profile). Though not itself directly mentioned, R4D leads the “group of researchers, [and] local and international consultants” involved in the joint World Bank Group/Ministry of Health initiative.

On August 13th, R4D had the great pleasure of hosting Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, for a discussion on innovative approaches to harnessing the private sector to provide affordable health care to the poor.

R4D and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, jointly hosted a symposium on the role of the private sector in health on July 11, 2009 prior to the start of the International Health Economics Association conference in Beijing, China.

Nicholas Burnett will lead Results for Development's new Education portfolio. A global leader on improving education outcomes for the world’s poor, he will step down at the end of October as UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education.

Health R&D financing remains inadequate -- R4D offers an evaluation of the most promising new ideas and a framework for evaluating them in the July/August 2009 Health Affairs issue.

The Ministerial Leadership Initiative (MLI) will be hosting a reception during the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva at the Intercontinental Hotel on May 20th, from 18:00 to 20:00. The reception will feature presentations by the Ministers of Health from the five countries we are working in under the MLI - Ethiopia, Mali, Nepal, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Those interested in joining the event should contact aion@resultsfordevelopment.org.

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) have awarded Results for Development a contract to carry out a major study on GAVI’s policies on which countries are eligible for financial assistance for their vaccination programs. Over the next seven months, the R4D team will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current eligibility criteria in light of GAVI’s strategic goals, identify new policy options and evaluate their potential impacts on GAVI finances and on global vaccine prices.

R4D Managing Director Marty Makinen delivered a keynote speech at the inaugural meeting of the African Health Economics and Policy Association in Accra, Ghana on March 12. In the speech, Marty highlighted the challenges that health economists face in translating their analysis into findings and recommendations that are accessible and appealing to senior health policy makers, who generally come from other fields such as medicine and public health and face major political pressures.

The aids2031 Costs and Financing Project hosted a two-day Technical Review Meeting in Washington DC, attended by nearly 50 experts in economics, public health, and management. More than a dozen papers were presented and reviewed on AIDS resource needs and mobilization issues from now through 2031. The findings and recommendations from the papers will be used in the overall synthesis report, to be produced by Managing Director Rob Hecht and his R4D team later this year.

At the aids2031 Steering Committee Meeting held in London Oct. 7-8, 2008, John Stover of the Futures Institute presented a plan for a long term cost model for HIV/AIDS. Current cost estimates project only a few years into the future and look at a limited set of scenarios. The Futures Institute will extend these estimates to 2031 and evaluate these costs in 4 different scenarios. The plans for this project, as well as the scenarios, are described in his presentation accessible here.

Results for Development Institute (R4D) hosted two panel sessions at the recent  U.S.-Africa Business Summit, organized by the Corporate Council on Africa in Washington D.C., that examined possible solutions to Africa’s healthcare delivery and financing challenges. The panels, generously supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, featured presentations by R4D Managing Directors Gina Lagomarsino and Marty Makinen and focused on innovative private sector health financing and delivery models and the role of health insurance in improving health outcomes and financial protecti