April 7, 2008- Every week, 200,000 children under five die in developing countries. Most of the deaths are preventable, caused by malnutrition and diarrhea due to lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Every week, over 10,000 women die of complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Every week, 50,000 die of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.  | | WBI helps countries implement health programs. |
Health challenges are central to development, expressed in three of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely saving children’s lives, making motherhood safe, and stopping HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. April 7 is World Health Day. In marking this day, we highlight the importance of ensuring that developing-country health policymakers and health administrators have the skills and knowledge needed to achieve these goals. The World Bank Institute offers courses aimed at building their capacity. “Limited capacity stalls progress toward the MDGs for health,” says Abdo Yazbeck, who heads WBI’s Health and AIDS program. “The Health and AIDS program helps countries design and implement programs that deliver preventive and curative health care to all of a country’s people.”  | | Participants from around the world interact online in the Basics of Health Economics course. |
On May 14, WBI will launch an online course, Basics of Health Economics, that outlines the impact of economics on decision-making in the health sector. “Participants will be introduced to the issues linking economics and health sector reform,” says course leader Jo Hindriks. “This should help health policymakers communicate effectively with their Ministry of Finance colleagues on health issues, which is crucial to secure funding for health programs.” Topics addressed in the e-Learning course include:
• the role of government, markets and private sector in health
• resource allocation and equity of health services (the poor spend a larger proportion of their income on health than middle- and higher-income people, and usually get lower-quality care)
• mechanisms to change behaviors of health-care providers and consumers to achieve better health outcomes WBI’s Health and AIDS team will also deliver two workshops in Africa. The first is in Johannesburg, South Africa, April 9-11, on Costing for Anglophone Technical Support Facility (TSF) Consultants. The second is in Arusha, Tanzania, May 19-23, on Improving Governance of HIV/AIDS Programs at the Local and Community Levels.  | | In poor countries, the number of people on ARV drugs tripled in 2005. Source: Fighting AIDS - World Bank |
At the Johannesburg workshop, participants will discuss costing tools for strategic and action plans for health, and developing applications for funding from the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. “A network of technical staff and consultants who support a national HIV/AIDS strategic and operational planning process will be established during the workshop to help create linkages and promote continuing education,” said Patrick Osewe, who is leading both workshops. The Arusha workshop focuses on capacity-building and aims to improve health sector governance by strengthening the flow of information and coordination, increasing transparency, and improving accountability, in HIV/AIDS programs at both district and community levels. WBI will also host a course on Achieving the MDGs: Poverty Reduction, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform in September 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. It will provide state-of-the-art knowledge and tools to help participants manage a shift in donor funding from project to broader program-based support.  | Tracking MDGs in the area of Child Mortality
Chart source: WB MDGs website |
This MDGs course integrates three thematic clusters: 1. New Policy Directions: MDGs Related to Health and Gender, and Poverty Reduction Strategies
2. Design and Delivery of Health Services and Programs
3. Health Services and Health Sector Reform. The MDGs course will be held in collaboration with Chualalongkorn University.
Contributed by Stefan Sittig More on WBI's Health & AIDS program. More on Health, Nutrition and Population. WB's HIV/AIDS program. Track the progress of Health related MDGs. |
