Devex: Set of congressional budget hearings lay out U.S. aid funding
“Congressional appropriators met this week to approve the United States foreign aid budget, once again pushing back on President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts and keeping funding at about the same levels as last fiscal year. There was some disagreement during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing however, that might point to trouble passing the bill. … The bill includes language that would codify the Mexico City policy, or ‘global gag rule,’ and language about global warming and funding coal projects, which troubled Democrats. The bill states: ‘None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be made available for the United Nations Population Fund. 20 (b) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act for global health assistance may be made available to any foreign nongovernmental organization that promotes or performs abortion, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term’…” (Saldinger/Igoe, 6/22).

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The Guardian: Quitting U.N. human rights council puts U.S. ‘on wrong side of history’ — activists
“The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the U.N. Human Rights Council puts the U.S. on the wrong side of history and should be urgently reversed, activists have said. The council needed reform, said campaigners, but remained a vital force for accountability and justice in a ‘post-rights world’…” (McVeigh, 6/21).

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Fox News: Nikki Haley blasts U.N. report on poverty in America as ‘misleading and politically motivated’
“A United Nations report criticizing the U.S. government on poverty in America is ‘misleading and politically motivated,’ according to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley…” (Edson, 6/21).

The Guardian: Nikki Haley attacks damning U.N. report on U.S. poverty under Trump
“…Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ that the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, had ‘categorically misstated the progress the United States has made in addressing poverty … in [his] biased reporting.’ She added that in her view that ‘it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America’ — which prompted puzzlement as Alston carried out his investigation at the formal invitation of the Trump administration…” (Pilkington, 6/21).

Los Angeles Times: Nikki Haley calls U.N. report on poverty in U.S. ‘misleading and politically motivated’
“…Alston was scheduled to present his report Thursday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Shortly before it was set to begin, he tweeted that the event was postponed until Friday. On Twitter, he said he looked forward to responding in the Human Rights Council. ‘Too bad the U.S. won’t be there,’ he added…” (Jarvie, 6/21).

Washington Post: Nikki Haley: ‘It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America’
“…Haley criticized the report for critiquing the United States’ treatment of its poor, arguing that the United Nations should instead focus on poverty in developing countries such as Burundi and Congo Republic. The U.N. report also faulted the Trump administration for pursuing policies it said would exacerbate U.S. poverty. … [Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)], who initially asked Haley for comment on the U.N. report, asked Haley to respond to statistics showing more than 30 million Americans lack health insurance, more than half of older workers have no retirements savings and 140 million Americans struggle to meet basic living expenses…” (Stein, 6/21).

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News Deeply: Agriculture and Nutrition Can’t Be Kept in Separate Silos, Say Experts
“…USAID’s Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) project … has been working for the last seven years to bring together the disparate worlds of agriculture and nutrition. Heather Danton, the director of food security and nutrition at SPRING, said they have had the most success at the local level. Now that a lack of funding is threatening to close down the project, experts there are working quickly to convert some of the findings from those efforts into lessons that can be adopted at higher levels. Danton spoke to Malnutrition Deeply about what some of those lessons have been and how to encourage multi-sectoral programming between agriculture and nutrition silos…” (Byatnal, 6/21).

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Devex: Mordaunt cranks up national interest rhetoric in keynote speech
“United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt dialed up the ‘national interest’ rhetoric Thursday, during a wide-ranging speech on the future of U.K. aid. Presenting to the Chatham House Conference in London, Mordaunt repeatedly returned to the Department for International Development’s focus on delivering aid ‘in the national interest,’ while also offering hints about the department’s focus areas in the coming year. These include ramping up spending on family planning; a renewed push to change the internationally sanctioned rules on aid spending; and a look toward new partners, namely China…” (Anders, 6/22).

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Washington Post: How prepared is the world for the next epidemic? This tool shows most countries are not.
“Public health officials and business leaders like Bill Gates have long warned that the world is not ready for the next pandemic. Now an initiative led by Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [and chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, part of Vital Strategies], has developed a tool that spotlights gaps in preparedness, and actions that countries and organizations can take to close them. The new website, PreventEpidemics.org, gives an individual score to each country and uses color codes to rank the world by five levels of preparedness…” (Sun, 6/21).

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Devex: SDGs show slow progress, not on track to reach 2030 targets, U.N. reports
“Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals remains uneven, and is not moving fast enough to meet the ambitious 17 goals on poverty, health, and equality by 2030, the United Nations said this week. The U.N. released its annual checkup report on the SDGs on Wednesday, accompanied by a call from U.N. Chief António Guterres that, ‘we must inject a sense of urgency’ in making good on the ambitious 2030 development agenda…” (Lieberman, 6/22).

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Devex: In the Kasai crisis response, a priority on local health services (Jerving, 6/22).

The Economist: How Sierra Leone is beating tropical diseases (6/23).

The Guardian: China: new rules to prevent sex-selective abortions raise fears (Kuo, 6/22).

The Guardian: Médecins Sans Frontières staff accused of using sex workers in Africa (Summers, 6/21).

The Hill: World Health Organization no longer classifies being transgender as mental illness (Folley, 6/21).

Homeland Preparedness News: Malaria vaccine combo may reduce number of cases (Clark, 6/21).

The Lancet: Hepatitis C-infected organ transplants offer hope (Webster, 6/23).

Mail & Guardian: South Sudan on brink of new famine (Martell, 6/22).

STAT: Health officials cautiously optimistic dangerous Ebola outbreak is over (Branswell, 6/21).

WIRED: How ‘Self-Limiting’ Mosquitos Can Help Eradicate Malaria (Molteni, 6/21).

Xinhua News: Uganda rolls out vaccine to protect newborns against diarrhea (6/21).

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The Hill: Fighting pandemics abroad is in our own best interest
Jonathan Fielding, professor of public health and pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles

“…[The U.S. has] been at the forefront of fighting diseases, which often start in Asian or African countries needing rapid assistance to curtail their spread, keep down death tolls, and prevent those diseases from gaining a foothold here. … Leadership is crucial because many low-income countries, as starkly illustrated by the delayed response to the Ebola epidemic, do not have the infrastructure to quickly identify and track epidemics or provide needed medical care. … We need to be prepared — not only against pandemics, but epidemics that threaten to become pandemics and to anticipate potential unknowns. Investment in global public health is, in the end — less costly, more effective and safer for everyone” (6/21).

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The Lancet: Understanding, preventing, and stopping epidemics
Amanda McClelland, senior vice president of the prevent epidemics team, and Thomas R. Frieden, president and chief executive officer, both at Resolve to Save Lives

“…Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, at the U.S. Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., brings the 1918 influenza pandemic back to life, along with many of the other major global public health threats of the past century. The exhibition explores the ecology of epidemics and what it takes to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks. … Outbreak shows in graphic detail that epidemics are not only a problem in poorer countries but that they can also happen anywhere and everywhere. It is imperative that we work together to make a safer world for everyone” (6/23).

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Inter Press Service: E.U. Urged to Ban Early & Forced Child Marriages
Rangita de Silva de Alwis, associate dean of international affairs at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and adviser to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals Fund

“Something historic was initiated at the European Development Days (EDD) in early June: the EDD placed women and girls at the forefront of Sustainable Development. … The [draft resolution] was unique in the way in which it called on the European Union, in the context of its foreign policy and its development cooperation policy, to offer a strategic pact to its partners and to that end require that all its partner countries prohibit early and forced marriage in law and practice. … The E.U. has a critical role to play in influencing policy reform both in the E.U. member states and outside…” (6/22).

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Inter Press Service: Countries are Using Domestic Laws to Criminalize Health Care
Dainius Pūras, U.N. special rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health

“…Whether it’s vague counter-terrorism legislation, misguided domestic laws and policies, or harsh administrative sanctions, states are often turning to domestic laws to criminalize health care. … Health professionals have a duty to care for the sick, wounded, and injured, regardless of their patients’ political affiliation or which side of a conflict they are on. … Whether a foe or an ally, a patient is a patient. … As the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, I have examined this issue during my country missions and engaged directly with governments as cases of medical professionals under threat have come to my attention. … States must review and amend their laws to ensure they explicitly shield the sick and wounded and those who care for them. Military, police, and security forces must be instructed that patients cannot be denied care, regardless of their affiliation. This requires both a normative as well as a cultural shift in how state structures uphold everyone’s basic dignity and rights. The international community must elevate this issue to ensure the protection of health care permeates the entire U.N. family…” (6/21).

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The Lancet: ICD-11: a brave attempt at classifying a new world
Editorial Board

“The 11th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) launched on June 18 is the latest attempt at systematically describing and categorizing all human mortality and morbidity. Designed for the global digital age, it is an onscreen, multipurpose, multilingual database interconnecting with other operating systems — including electronic hospital records. It is a quantum leap forward … The ICD-11 now enters a period of testing; the new system will be adopted by the World Health Assembly’s member states in 2019, finally coming into widespread use on Jan 1, 2022. … The protracted nature of these radical overhauls suggests future versions best be developed incrementally. Perhaps employment of the latest technological advances such as artificial intelligence might help?” (6/23).

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Friends of the Global Fight: Friends Applauds House and Senate Appropriations Committees for Robust Funding for the Global Fund and International Assistance
“This week the House and Senate Appropriations Committees reported out FY 2019 funding bills for the Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs (SFOPS), both sustaining funding for critical global health programs, including $1.35 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). ‘Friends commends the continued leadership of Senators Graham and Leahy, and Chairman Rogers and Rep. Lowey, for sustaining crucial funding for global health programs, including the Global Fund,’ said Chris Collins, President of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Friends)” (6/21).

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Brookings: Applying the lessons of the Marshall Plan to U.S. global leadership today
Anthony F. Pipa, senior fellow in global economy and development at Brookings, highlights a recent event commemorating the Marshall Plan and examining lessons for U.S. global leadership today. Pipa moderated the event, which featured USAID Administrator Mark Green, Brookings President John Allen, and CARE USA President and CEO Michelle Nunn as panelists. Pipa outlines key themes that emerged from the discussion (6/21).

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Brookings Institution’s “Up Front”: How better aid transparency will help tackle global development challenges
George Ingram, senior fellow in global economy and development with Brookings, discusses Publish What You Fund’s 2018 Aid Transparency Index and a June 20 Brookings event where “panelists discussed how public access to how aid is spent is a valuable asset to tackling many global challenges…” (6/21).

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Brink, a digital news service of Marsh & McLennan Companies’ Global Risk Center, published a four-part series examining pandemic preparedness. Brink staff and others contributed to the series, which includes:

Using Modern Data and Analytics To Confront the Challenge of Epidemic Risk (Wolfe et al., 6/19).

A Structural Response To Pandemic Threats (Editorial Staff, 6/20).

The Case for ‘Pop-Up’ Vaccine Factories (Makatsoris, 6/21).

A Big Step Forward on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (Evans, 6/22).

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Kaiser Family Foundation: Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY19 State & Foreign Operations (SFOPs) Appropriations Bill
This budget summary highlights global health-related aspects of the FY19 State & Foreign Operations (SFOPs) appropriations bill and accompanying report approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The SFOPs bill includes funding for U.S. global health programs at the State Department and USAID (6/22).

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