Spring Meeting 2010 - Tuesday Sessions
Plenary Welcome
Tom Davis, Chair, CORE Group Board of Directors, Director of Health Programs, Food for the Hungry
Official welcome and start of this year’s CORE Group Spring Membership Meeting from Board Chair Tom Davis.
CORE Group Spring Meeting 2010: Being Bold Together
State of CORE
Karen LeBan, Executive Director, CORE Group
Karen LeBan introduced the Spring Meeting theme on communities and health systems strengthening. The session updated members and colleagues on membership trends, the CORE Group secretariat, and Working Group accomplishments over the past year.
Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Communities and Health Systems Strengthening (The State of CORE)
CORE Community Update and Network Building Session
Ann Hendrix-Jenkins, Director of Partnership Development, CORE Group; Tom Davis, Chair, CORE Group Board of Directors, Director of Health Programs, Food for the Hungry
Community Health Network participants often cite the amazing value they find in CORE Group facilitated networking. To get the ball rolling, CORE Group staff and Tom Davis set the group to work making connections in a lively way (with a practical twist, as usual).
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks
Keynote Address: The Child Development Perspective
Jack Bryant, Senior Faculty Associate, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Department of International Health
The presentation focused on the care we arrange for under-5 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in the urban slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The care is strongly community-based, and includes a mix of primary health care and actions prompted by recent advances in the science of early childhood development.
Supporting Early Childhood Development in the Slums of Africa – Emerging Concepts
Keynote Address: The Community: Strengthening the health system from the bottom up
Adrian Hopkins, Task Force for Global Health
The donation of Mectizan (ivermectin, Merck) in 1987 for the control of onchocerciasis (as much as was needed for as long as was needed) has not only led to new regional programs covering 19 countries in Africa and 6 countries in Latin America but has also led to novel ways of health service delivery. Mectizan must be distributed once or twice a year to all the eligible population for many years (18-? 25 years depending on various factors).
In order to sustain programs it was clear that the community had to be fully implicated in the process. CDTI (Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin) was developed after research showed that empowered communities were able to organize their own mass treatment after suitable social mobilization and appropriate training. The results have been remarkable in terms of scaling up and in terms of community participation. Many other activities have been added on by partners in the CDTI process. The Tropical Diseases Research and Training Program (TDR) further researched these activities and developed the process called Community Directed Interventions (CDI).
The Mectizan Donation Program has been a catalyst for the other donation programmes and the current move to control Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). Those targeting children or maternal and child health are based on special maternal and child health days or school distribution systems but those that target the total population are mostly using the CDI approach. Nearly all these programs depend on donated drugs for mass distribution. At present 80 million people are on treatment for onchocerciasis and over 100 million in Africa for Lymphatic Filariasis.
CDI has become a major component of some public health programs but there is a risk of setting up a parallel system. CDI must be seen as a process of empowering communities to intervene for their own health priorities, in full cooperation with the primary health service team and as part of the health district strategy for delivering health care to the most peripheral of communities. This is instrumental in strengthening the health systems from the bottom up which is vital to counterbalance the current top down approach of some efforts to strengthen national health systems.
The Community: strengthening the health system from the bottom up
Lunch Roundtables
Roundtable: Polio Project Update
Frank Conlon, Project Director, Dora Ward, Sr. Technical Advisor, and Meg Lynch, Program Associate- CORE Group Polio Project
The latest directions in CORE’s work to eradicate polio. Meet the new Project Director!
Roundtable: Newborn Health Indicator Questions
Allisyn Moran, Faculty Associate, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Department of International Health
The session organizers extend a welcome to all PVOs which have been collecting information on newborn health indicators, and those interested in this topic. The discussion will aim to understand PVO experiences with the use of the questions used to acquire these indicators.
Plenary
U.S. Government Health Initiatives Panel
Moderator: Karen LeBan, CORE Group
Richard Greene and Laura Birx presented via videoconference.
Global Health Initiative
Richard Greene, Director, Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition, Bureau for Global Health, USAID
President Obama announced a comprehensive whole-of-government approach to global health, the Global Health Initiative, in May 2009, as a $63 billion, six-year (FY2009 - FY2014) effort. This initiative would build on current disease-specific initiatives for HIV, TB and malaria while expanding these efforts to include maternal health, child health, nutrition, family planning / reproductive health, neglected tropical diseases and health systems strengthening. After extensive consultation with partners, the State Department released its consultation document "Implementation of the Global Health Initiative" in March 2010. The consultation document outlines seven core principles (women-centered approach, strategic coordination and integration, strengthening of multilaterals and partners, country-ownership, health systems strengthening, improved metric, and research and innovation) while expanding on four main implementation components: do more of what works, build on existing platforms, innovate for results, and collaborate for impact / promote country ownership. Richard Greene provided an update on the Global Health Initiative, highlighting milestones in progress and planning to date.
The U.S. Government’s Global Health Initiative
Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative (GHFSI)
Laura Birx, Research and Technical Advisor, Nutrition Division, Bureau for Global Health, USAID
Achieving food security for developing countries is an essential component of eradicating poverty. Over a billion people still go to sleep hungry every night, but momentum is building for global action to fight the problem. In July 2009 at the L'Aquila G8 Summit world leaders committed new resources for agricultural development and a new approach to global food security. The Obama Administration has prioritized the food security issue in the U.S. global development agenda and has committed to collaborate with stakeholders in this new global initiative. Specifically, the Administration has committed to advance action that addresses the needs of small scale farmers and agri-businesses, and harnesses the power of women to drive economic growth. The U.S. government intends to achieve these by increasing investment in agriculture development while maintaining the support for humanitarian food assistance. In a consultation document in September 2009, the U.S. government outlined its five principles (comprehensively address underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition, country-ownership, strategic coordination, leveraging of multi-laterals, and sustainable and accountable commitments) towards pursuing a comprehensive approach to food security. Laura Birx will highlight current developments of this initiative and next steps, and update the audience on USAID Bureau for Global Health priorities in nutrition.
Feed the Future Update April 2010
Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP)
Koki Agarwal, MCHIP Project Director
The Maternal and Child Health Integrated program (MCHIP) is USAID's flagship maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) program, which focuses on reducing maternal, neonatal and child mortality. MCHIP is designed to accelerate progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in USAID's 30 maternal and child health (MCH) priority countries over five years. Building on strong program experience, MCHIP will address the major causes of mortality in the 30 priority countries, where more than 70% of the world's maternal, newborn and child deaths occur. The MCHIP partnership works together with countries to help implement effective strategies for reducing maternal, neonatal and child deaths at scale. Currently MCHIP works in over 25 countries along the MNCH continuum of care (including family planning and HIV/AIDS) from pre−pregnancy to age five, and by linking communities, first−level facilities, and hospitals. MCHIP is a five-year (October 2008 - September 2013) $600 million Leader with Associates award managed by Jhpiego in partnership with Save the Children, ICF/Macro, JSI, PATH, PSI, BBA and IIP. Koki Agarwal, Project Director, highlighted MCHIP’s structure (country, global, NGOs) and how the project supports partnerships to achieve country health strategies and USAID’s Bureau for Global Health priorities. She provided an overview of key project highlights from the first two years of project implementation.
Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program – MCHIP
Foreign Aid Reform – A Civil Society Perspective
Monica Mills, Director of Government Relations, Bread for the World
There has been a continuing call for reform of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which created the basis for U.S. foreign assistance. The last time this act was amended was in 1985. Both Congress and the Administration have initiated discussions on new foreign aid reform legislation; there is a Presidential Study Directive on Global Development that calls for a review of global development policy; and the State Department is finalizing a first of its kind Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. While these efforts are not specifically health-focused , it is likely that they will have implications for the U.S. global health efforts. Monica Mills presented foreign aid reform efforts from a civil society perspective informed by Bread for the World, and discussed how the GHI and GHFSI serve as a model for broader reform efforts, and how the reform efforts may affect the health efforts. She offered suggestions on how the global health civil society community can take advantage of opportunities to advocate for coordination and civil society input into the dialogue.
Concurrent Sessions
Working Group Planning Time
Working Groups used this time to review accomplishments, discuss tasks to be completed during the second half of the year, and to discuss “CORE Group MCH Initiatives” planning.