News & Views

Alma Ata at 40 years: Reflections from the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health

October 25, 2018

In 2013, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health published its report, “Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation” (GH2035). The report concluded that a grand convergence in health—a reduction in infectious, child, and maternal mortality to rates seen in the best-performing middle-income countries—is technically and financially feasible for all but the poorest countries by 2035. Mortality from non-communicable diseases could be reduced through inexpensive population-based and clinical interventions, especially fiscal policies such as heavy tobacco taxation.... Read more

Policy Implications of New Country Specific Health Financing Research

October 7, 2016

In the 2013 report Global Health 2035: a world converging within a generation, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health (CIH) showed that by increasing focused health sector investments, nearly all countries could achieve a “grand convergence” in global health by 2035 – a reduction in the rates of infectious, child, and maternal deaths to the levels of the best performing middle-income countries. In order to achieve such dramatic health gains, developing countries need to overcome significant funding gaps for their health systems. Addressing this resource gap is further... Read more

PLOS Launches "Grand Convergence" Collection Featuring 9 New Papers by 69 Global Health Experts

March 2, 2016

Press Release - Strategic investments to discover and develop new health tools, together with innovations in effectively delivering today's health tools and services, could avert 10 million deaths a year within just one generation, argue leading global health experts in a new PLOS Collection, Grand Convergence: Aligning Technologies and Realities in Global Health.

Credit: PLOS

The unique collection of papers involves 69 authors from high-, middle- and low-... Read more

New Study on Feasibility of Sustainable Development Goal for Health

October 14, 2015

The stark disparities that exist in health today across countries and communities can be greatly reduced, creating more equal opportunities for survival and well-being everywhere, say the authors of a new study published in PLOS ONE (October 9).

At the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting last month, the UN adopted a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which includes one goal for health (SDG 3). The health goal includes a set of targets to be achieved by 2030, such as reducing the global maternal mortality ratio by two thirds (from 210 to 70 per 100,000 live... Read more

267 Economists Worldwide Agree: Universal Health Coverage Makes Economic Sense

September 21, 2015

As global leaders prepare to finalize bold Sustainable Development Goals, economists from 44 countries declare that investments in health are right, smart and affordable

Signatories calling for universal health coverage include Lawrence H. Summers, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, current and former World Bank chief economists, 5 Nobel Laureates

Press Release—New York, 18 September 2015—A global coalition of 267 economists representing 44 countries is calling on policymakers to prioritize universal health coverage as an essential pillar of economic... Read more

Bellagio workshop on implementing pro-poor universal health coverage

July 28, 2015

The CIH hosted a three-day workshop, July 6-10, 2015, at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on "Implementing Pro-Poor Universal Health Coverage." During this meeting, a diverse group of 21 participants, including officials from the Ministries of Health of nine countries, academics, and representatives of global health agencies, foundations, and civil society organizations, shared their experiences to build the evidence on how to successfully implement pro-poor UHC.

The Commission on Investing in Health, in... Read more

Study Finds Donor Funds Fall Short for Key Global Health Functions

July 13, 2015

As experts debate the slow response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and call for better international coordination, a new analysis estimates that $22 billion was spent on global health aid in 2013, yet only a fifth of this went toward such global imperatives as research on diseases that disproportionally affect the poor, outbreak preparedness and global health leadership.

How much donor financing for health is channelled to global versus country-specific aid functions?

July 12, 2015
The Lancet
Marco Schäferhoff, Sara Fewer, Jessica Kraus, Emil Richter,... Read more

Bill Gates urges action to save 34 million lives, using Global Health 2035 data

May 12, 2015

Bill Gates has an important message for you. By expanding access to health interventions and tools already in our toolkit, we can prevent 34 million deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis, and maternal fatalities. In a recent piece for Quartz, Mr. Gates shares data from the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health's Global Health 2035 report and encourages readers to join the Global Citizen worldwide campaign.

A series of blogs in gatesnotes presents the evidence in even greater detail and put the numbers in context.  Must reads, in our opinion!

How to Save 3... Read more

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