WASHINGTON, December 8, 2011 – The World Bank’s Development Impact Evaluation Initiative (DIME), in collaboration with the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm) at the Global Fund, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), is hosting a conference on “Innovations in Health Care Financing and Service Delivery: Making Malaria Treatment Available”. This will showcase research implemented in conjunction with the World Bank and its partners, including studies carried out under the World Bank’s Malaria Impact Evaluation Program (MIEP). The event will feature a keynote speech on December 8th by Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow titled “Seven years after ‘Saving Lives, Buying Time’ – New Challenges for Financing Malaria Diagnosis and Treatment.” Malaria remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in much of the developing world. Preventive efforts, including widespread distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, have reduced the malaria burden in many endemic countries in the past decade. However limited access to Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs), the recommended front-line antimalarial medicine, together with operational challenges for case management, has led to relatively smaller gains in the availability of malaria treatment. A challenge now, as it has been for decades, is ensuring access to effective antimalarial drugs when and where they are needed while simultaneously promoting proper usage patterns to minimize the possible emergence of drug resistence. In light of these challenges, “Innovations in Health Care Financing and Service Delivery: Making Malaria Treatment Available” will provide a forum to critically review and discuss the emerging evidence on novel ways to finance and deliver access to the treatment of malaria as well as ways to strengthen the quality of fever case management in both the public and private sectors. Specifically, the event aims to: 1. Critically review and discuss results and lessons from country experiences in innovations in the financing and delivery of first-line malaria treatment, the introduction of rapid diagnostic tests (or laboratory diagnosis), and the resulting need for treatment of non-malaria fevers. 2. Provide a forum for international agencies active in global malaria control to take stock of current knowledge (including pipeline projects), discuss views, and respond to clients’ comments and needs. 3. Identify critical evidence gaps to focus research. 4. Catalyze further knowledge-sharing and evaluation across malaria-endemic countries. 5. Leverage existing, and develop new, strategic partnerships for impact evaluation in malaria control (including joint evaluations and co-funding). The research discussed will focus on four content areas: (a) increasing affordability, availability and accessibility of ACTs and adoption of sustainable financing for fever and malaria treatment at national levels; (b) the success of different approaches to making quality ACTs more accessible through both public and private sectors; (c) proper malaria diagnosis, treatment, and treatment of diagnosed non-malaria fevers; and (d) the contribution of impact evaluations to malaria control program and policy design and improvement. “There is a great deal of active on-going research on these topics and this conference is an excellent opportunity to bring the research community together for discussion and learning”, said Jed Friedman, a World Bank economist and one of the conference participants. The conference will assess the most current challenges and possible solutions to the treatment of one of the world’s leading health threats. By compiling evidence from new evaluations that offer valuable lessons on innovations in the financing and delivery of essential care – for example, the effect of subsidies on provider and consumer behavior, improving the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical supply chains, testing private sector and/or community-based models of service delivery, and using schools as an innovative and cost-effective platform for care delivery – the conference will offer insights not only for malaria control, but for disease control programs and health systems strengthening in general Innovations in Health Care Financing and Service Delivery: Making Malaria Treatment Available is generously funded by the World Bank-administered Spanish Impact Evaluation Trust Fund (SIEF). The entire event is open to the public. Contacts: In Washington: Silvia Velez Caroco, svelezcaroco@worldbank.org Marcus Holmlund, mholmlund@worldbank.org, 202 390 5196 The event is open to media. Journalists wishing to attend should contact Ms. Caroco or Mr. Holmlund. For more information, please visit the Workshops section of the DIME website at http://go.worldbank.org/AA3S3ZIHI0 |
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