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Forum 2015
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All forums | Development Cooperation | Environment | Focus on one disease will slow the millennium goals.
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 | | |  Public | | | | Linda Groeneweg | | 15 posts |
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05 March 2010 13:03 Quote |
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Focus on one disease will slow the millennium goals.
News from a research at Oxford university:
Although progress has been made toward achieving the MDGs, few if any of the targets are likely to be met by 2015. Worryingly, low-income countries are falling furthest behind their MDG targets. For example, although child mortality has been declining globally, in many poor countries there has been little or no progress. Sub-Saharan Africa has the slowest progress. What is the explanation for this and other inequalities in progress toward the health MDGs?
Some countries may simply lack the financial resources needed to combat epidemics or may allocate only a low proportion of their gross domestic product (GDP) to health. Alternatively, money allocated to health may not always reach the people who need it most because of an inadequate health infrastructure. Finally, coexisting epidemics may be hindering progress toward the MDG health targets. Thus, the spread of HIV/ AIDS may be hindering attempts to limit the spread of tuberculosis because HIV infection increases the risk of active tuberculosis. And ongoing epidemics of diabetes and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) may be affecting the attainment of health MDGs by diverting scarce resources.
In this study, the researchers investigate whether any of these possibilities is driving the inequalities in MDG progress.The researchers calculated how far 227 countries were from their MDG targets for HIV, tuberculosis, and infant and child mortality in 2005 using information collected by the UN.
More about this research you can find in the PloS Medicine journal http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000241
Do we need a more integrated aproach for those diseases?
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 | | |  VoiceOver 2015 member | | | | Thomas Baganineza | | Swaziland | | 33 posts | | View profile |
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07 March 2010 13:49 Quote |
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Re: Focus on one disease will slow the millennium goals.
Sub-Sahara Africa has the slowest progress towards meeting the health MDGs because of a few specific reasons:
1. The Western and Developed nations did not start to prioritize on MDGs targets in 2000. They have been working on them under other terms(without using the name MDGs)long before 2000. Therefore, Sub-Sahara Africa cannot meet the challenging goals in 15 years while it took the Developed nations many years plus 15 to achieve them. In other words it was evident from the beginning (in 2000)that Sub-Sahara wouldn't be able to meet these goals by 2015.
2. The Western and developed nations have the money for any budget they undertake. Sub-Sahara Africa relies on donations and Development aid for greater part of its Development budget. We all know that we cannot be totally effective if we rely on donations in greater part of our project because the donations don't come on the right time with the right conditions.
3.Sub-Sahara Africa is inclined on cure than prevention.
So much money is spent in treating diseases while little could have been spent to prevent them. But again when there are many diseases it is a good business for pharmaceutical companies. Africa should encourage partnership and aid in prevention of diseases.
4.Development policies in Sub-Sahara Africa depend on Western and Developed nations donors requirements and priorities. They don't often ask where they can help.
Instead they say," this is the donation we have for you to tackle this and that. You take it or leave it."
In other words, if the donor's priority is to support HIV AIDS campaign in Africa, Africa won't twist the donor's arm to tackle the most urgent challenges of malaria,T.B, diabetes, malnutrition, poverty, food insecurity...
To get out of this quagmire, Sub-Sahara Africa should prioritize and have its own policies and ask for aid and donations that are really needed to implement the local projects. The belief that any kind of food given to the hungry person is delicious has been hindering and killing progress in Africa. If we order chocolate and they bring us bread, we should be able to dismiss it. When will African choices be respected? It is only when Africans show that they are serious about what they really need not just any thing given to them.
To bring billions of condoms in Africa in the name of fighting HIV/AIDS while millions of African children are dying of malnutrition, lack of medication and lack of education is only enriching foreign firms which make and sell these condoms which are now decorating African continent to the point that we now have"Condom Avenues" and "Condom Streets". To which extent condoms have been effective in preventing HIV has been always debatable and controversial.
Sub-Sahara Africa should get its priorities right and stop to misplace them by majoring on minors and minoring on majors. This will be the only way by which a more integrated approach for all these diseases will be effective. And when is that? I have no clue but there is hope!
thomasbaganineza@gmail.com |
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