By Godelieve van Heteren Paul et al’s critique In a recent paper in BMJ Global Health, 24 authors (Paul et al) – the majority of whom are French-speaking academics and consultants from northern countries – declared that performance-based financing (PBF) in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) health systems needs an urgent rethink. They claim it is […]
Category: BMJ Global Health blog
Public health forgets the potential of family medicine principles in spite of available evidence
By Pieter van den Hombergh and Jarl Chabot The fact that universal health coverage (UHC) is a moral obligation is no longer debatable. What is debatable now is what processes and evidence are needed to realise UHC. The recent article in BMJ Global Health provided a sophisticated view on “how to reach UHC” and we hope responsible […]
Why are there so many doctors leading global health?
By Paisly Symenuk The appointment of Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus as the Director General of the World Health Organization has paved the path for greater diversity within the organization. He has been applauded for attaining regional and gender parity in the WHO’s executive leadership. We should indeed celebrate the choice for diversity in geographic background of […]
Where are the economic benefits we, the TB-affected, were promised?
Deepti Chavan When the Government of India in its National Tuberculosis Strategic Plan 2017-2022 announced that tuberculosis (TB) patients would be provided direct economic benefits while on treatment, I was overjoyed. I have seen up close and upfront how TB affects a family’s economic status. I am a multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB survivor. My six-year […]
Addressing the global health funding gap: Italy needs to step up!
Dr Giorgia Sulis Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) account for as much as 85% of the world population and over 90% of the global burden of disease, and mostly count on international donor funding for health, the average domestic health expenditure being lower than 12% (Figure 1). Although there has been a dramatic increase in […]
Role of the private sector in epidemic response and preparedness
By Jennifer Esposito, Health & Life Sciences, Intel Corporation In today’s interconnected world, pandemic disease threats have the potential to not only have a devastating human impact, but could also cost tens of billions of dollars to the global economy and private enterprise. These threats could exacerbate political and economic instability, and threaten the national […]
India’s toilet use challenge and the dilemma of human behaviour
By Pritha Chatterjee and Dr K. Viswanath, Harvard School of Public Health The single biggest problem in communication, as the erudite George Bernard Shaw worried, is the illusion that it has taken place. While this applies profoundly in many areas of public health, the open defecation challenge in India lends itself as a particularly telling […]
“Science is everywhere, let’s keep it that way.” Increasing threats to science both in the North and South: some responses
By Sara Ardila-Gómez (Emerging Voices for Global Health, 2014, Argentina) & Kati Wilkins (Emerging Voices for Global Health, 2016, United States of America) Over the last months, quite a few governments from both Northern and Southern countries have turned their backs on science by questioning its value, importance, and contribution to human and planetary sustainable […]
The intersection of gender, trauma and global health: what we know and what we should know
Many experts would argue that trauma is not just a one-time incident; it is a lifelong burden, affecting physical, psychosocial and emotional aspects of health. I have been interested in the subject of gender-based violence since childhood. As a child, I remember accompanying my mother to the domestic violence shelter where she volunteered on weekday […]
Fee-for-service – a bold measure by the Afghan health ministry
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has recently announced a User Fee Regulation under which user fees will be levied for services in secondary and tertiary public health facilities. The details of how much will be charged, for what services, and when the regulation will actually come into effect are yet to be known. What […]