[afro-nets] Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research

["Claudio Schuftan" <cschuftan@phmovement.org>]

Coalition BULLETIN
Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR)
Number 43, September 2007

Some interesting things happened in the month of September, all related to international partnership and coordination in the health sector, and some with some Canadian involvement. So international collaboration is the focus of this issue of the Bulletin. I'll summarize these developments and comment on the role of the Coalition, past and possibly in the future.

SOME BACKGROUND:
Over the last several years, increasing attention has been paid to the challenge of "donor coordination"--a discussion that has taken place mainly among high income countries and global agencies. A milestone in this discussion was the launch of the "Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness" in March 2005, emphasizing five features: ownership, harmonization, alignment, results and mutual accountability. The original document includes 50 resolution and 12 "indicators of progress", to be monitored both nationally and internationally. Canada, through CIDA, is a signatory of this Declaration, and has been a steady contributor to periodic progress review meetings. In fact more than 100 Ministers and heads of agencies committed their countries to the "Paris Declaration" process.

THREE RECENT EXAMPLES:
This month, three similar initiatives were launched, all part of a global campaign to facilitate the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. I'll summarize each of them quite briefly.

? On September 5th, the heads of seven developing country governments, eight international organizations, eight bilateral donors (including Canada) along with the Gates Foundation and the Africa Development Bank signed a global compact called the "International Health Partnership" (IHP). The goal is to improve health services to achieve improved health outcomes. In some ways the IHP represents the Paris Declaration in the health sector.

? On September 26th, Norway launched an initiative called "Women and Children First: the Global business Plan for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health". In fact, this represents a remarkable example by the Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, who has committed this country of 4.5 million people to make a major contribution to MDG4--reducing child deaths. Here's a recent quote of an interview with Mr. Stoltenberg "As politicians, we address a lot of problems that are almost impossible to solve. But when it comes to child mortality it is very straightforward and easy to measure. You see the progress and you see the results. It is very stimulating."

? Also in September, Canada (through CIDA) made a major contribution to UNICEF International, calling it the "Catalytic Initiative to Save a Million Lives".

While these high visibility initiatives are welcome, they need to be maintained over time and evaluated. [See "Have you read" below].

SOME COALITION-RELATED COMMENTS:
In its own way, the Coalition has been contributing to "international collaboration" effort. Some brief comments on this:

? Through our country focus strategy (CFS) we have sometimes served as a "knowledge broker'. For example, as part of our work in Zambia to contribute to the strengthening of Zambia's health research system, we tried to learn what other donor countries (Sweden, U.K., the Netherlands) and global agencies (such as the WHO) were already doing, so that our efforts could be synergistic.

? Over the past year, both the CCGHR and the GHRI have contributed to a pilot project (funded by Swedish SIDA, and managed by the Council on Health Research for Development - COHHRED) aimed at improved "alignment and harmonization" in five target African countries. Canada is one of 8 donor countries in this project. We have been invited to hear a report of this project at the Global Forum for Health Research in Beijing.

? But we can do better. At an upcoming meeting of the Board of Directors (BOD) in early November (at the time of the CCIH), the Coalition's role in "mobilizing support" and advocacy will be reviewed. In particular, the BOD will address the challenge of re-vitalizing our Task Group on Mobilizing Support.

HAVE YOU READ?
I recommend that you read a short (3-page), useful and timely commentary on these initiatives by Chris Murray, Julio Frenk and Tim Evans that just appeared:

Murray CJL, Frenk J, Evans T. The Global Campaign for the Health MDGs: challenges, opportunities, and the imperative of shared learning. The Lancet 2007;370:1018

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:4G_XeTa4zxYJ:multimedia.thelancet.com/pdf/press/MDG4.pdf+The+Global+Campaign+for+the+Health+MDGs:CHALLENGES&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ca

 As always, comments are most welcome; please sent them to: ccghr@ccghr.ca

Vic Neufeld, National Coordinator
mailto:ccghr@ccghr.ca