The Guardian: Barack Obama in Kenya: ‘no excuse’ for treating women as second-class citizens
“Barack Obama wrapped up his visit to Kenya on Sunday with a strong condemnation of female genital mutilation and other ‘bad traditions’ that treat women as second-class citizens, in a speech that also a offered a poignant glimpse into his African heritage…” (Smith, 7/26).

Huffington Post: Obama In Kenya: Female Genital Mutilation Not Defensible As Cultural Tradition
“… ‘Treating women as second-class citizens is a bad tradition: it holds you back,’ Obama said while speaking to a crowd of 4,500 people who convened at a sports arena in Nairobi. ‘There’s no excuse for sexual assault or domestic violence, there’s no reason that young girls should suffer genital mutilation, there’s no place in a civilized society for the early or forced marriage of children. These traditions may go back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.’ Whether intended or not, Obama actually chose an opportune moment to tackle the issue of FGM specifically…” (Goldberg, 7/29).

VOA Zimbabwe: Obama Address To Africa Strikes Code With Women
“…In his speech [at the African Union], the U.S. president also said his country would support women’s programs that focused on sexual abuse and domestic violence. ‘If you want to empower women, America will be your partner. Let’s work together to stop sexual assault and domestic violence. Let’s make clear that we will not tolerate rape as weapon of war — it is a crime and those who commit it must be punished,’ said President Obama said to a loud applause…” (Mhlanga-Nyahuye, 7/30).

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News outlets report on the U.N.’s 2015 Revision of World Population Prospects, published Wednesday.

The Guardian: Global population set to hit 9.7 billion people by 2050 despite fall in fertility
“Despite a continuing slowdown in the rate of population growth, it is ‘almost inevitable’ that the number of people on the planet will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the latest U.N. projections…” (Jones/Anderson, 7/29).

New York Times: India Will Be Most Populous Country Sooner Than Thought, U.N. Says
“…The United Nations reported on Wednesday that India’s population will probably surpass China’s by 2022, not 2028, as the organization had forecast just two years ago…” (Gladstone, 7/29).

Reuters: India set to become world’s most populous country by 2022 — U.N.
“…Most growth will happen in developing regions, particularly Africa, according to the report World Population Prospects. The demographic forecasts are crucial for designing and implementing the new global development goals being launched later this year to replace the Millennium Development Goals…” (Batha, 7/29).

U.N. News Centre: U.N. projects world population to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, driven by growth in developing countries
“…Moreover, the report reveals that during the 2015-2050 period, half of the world’s population growth is expected to be concentrated in nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia, and Uganda…” (7/29).

Washington Post: India will have the world’s largest population earlier than expected, U.N. says
“…Also highlighted in the report is a rise in global life expectancy at birth, from 67 years between 2000-2005 to 70 years in 2010-2015. That trend is expected to continue, reaching 77 years in 2045-2050 and then 83 years in 2095-2100…” (Katz, 7/30).

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Reuters: GlaxoSmithKline sees staged roll-out of malaria vaccine
“The world’s first malaria vaccine, which won a green light last week from European drugs regulators, will be rolled out gradually in Africa, its maker said on Wednesday. ‘We believe that there should be a thoughtful, staged roll-out of this vaccine, particularly because it is important that we acquire more knowledge about where it really works the best,’ GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Chief Executive Andrew Witty told reporters…” (Hirschler, 7/29).

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Agence France-Presse: Ebola cases fall to year low but WHO warns of trouble ahead
“The World Health Organization on Wednesday hailed the fewest weekly infections for over a year in the West African Ebola epidemic, but warned they were braced for a significant new outbreak in Sierra Leone…” (7/29).

CIDRAP News: Ebola numbers drop sharply in Guinea, Sierra Leone
“…Four of the new lab-confirmed cases were in Guinea and three were in Sierra Leone. No new cases were reported in Liberia, which had recently experienced a cluster of cases in Monrovia…” (Schnirring, 7/29).

New York Times: New Ebola Cases Decline, but WHO Advises Caution
“…But it is too soon to tell whether the decline will last, the agency said, noting that during the previous two months, 20 to 30 new cases a week were reported in the two countries…” (Grady, 7/29).

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Christian Science Monitor: How West Africa is ramping up food security after Ebola outbreak
“As the West African countries heaviest hit by the Ebola outbreak look to rebuild, food security and nutrition will be key to combating the lingering effects of the disease. … The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that as many as 1.4 million people will be food-insecure because of Ebola…” (Algozin, 7/29).

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Devex: Innovative, large-scale solutions needed to address malnutrition
“…[B]ecause multiple sectors and stakeholders are involved in efforts to promote good nutrition, there is a need to ‘look at which channels we can activate to benefit’ those most at-risk of malnutrition, Dominic Schofield, director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Canada, told Devex on the sidelines of the Girl Power in Play symposium in Ottawa…” (Ocampo, 7/30).

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Thomson Reuters Foundation: Tanzania’s free SMS health campaign helps pregnant women, new mothers
“…Since the campaign, Wazazi Nipendeni, ‘Parents Love Me’ in Swahili, was introduced three years ago, some 125,000 pregnant women have registered for the free text messages. More than five million text messages have been sent to subscribers, who get health information and reminders for doctor’s appointments direct to their mobile phones — many of them in distant parts of Tanzania…” (Makoye, 7/29).

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Korea Herald: Never again
Editorial Board

“…[T]he MERS outbreak should offer us precious lessons that, if not properly contained, a deadly virus can have an unprecedented impact on the nation and our daily life. Now all the masks are gone and likewise we all should get back to our normal [lives]. What we should do from now on is … find out what went wrong with our response to the epidemic and who [is] responsible as well as upgrade the nation’s health care system regarding contagious diseases” (7/29).

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Devex: The new market builders for health innovation
Michael Igoe, global development reporter for Devex

“…At the recent International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, negotiators sent a strong message that global development’s future resides with domestic tax resources and private investment, not with foreign aid. That means the market for global health innovation is shifting too. … That is where the global health community needs to prepare for a massive transformation: from a health innovation landscape that is mostly supply-side driven, with donor-funded programs pushing approved products into the marketplace, to a future where demand originates in national priorities, plans, and budgets…” (7/30).

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Devex: 5 things needed to turn the SDGs into reality
Elizabeth Stuart, team leader for Sustainable Development Goals at the Overseas Development Institute

“…The clock to SDG attainment will start ticking Jan. 1, 2016. Here are five things that will be important to ensure the much-debated goals and targets — and the overarching vision of a new future for everyone — actually start to be implemented. … 1. … Once the outcome document is signed by heads of state in September, governments should work quickly to ensure that all line ministries discuss the implications for their country. … 2. Civil society should also mobilize quickly. … 3. As countries consider national targets — that is, translating the global goals into nationally relevant ones — it will be vital to get the right balance of achievability and ambition. … 4. Once country plans have been agreed, donors will need to work with governments to ensure that financing is available. … 5. Moving quickly…” (7/29).

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RESULTS blog: President Obama Working on an Action Plan to Stop Drug-Resistant TB
David Bryden, the TB advocacy officer at RESULTS, writes, “This week RESULTS, along with 12 other leading U.S. and international organizations, sent a letter to President Obama to thank him for initiating the development of a U.S. Government National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The letter urges the President to develop a comprehensive and ambitious plan and to propose the necessary funding required for agencies to implement the plan, beginning in FY 2017. … He has already issued a bold plan on antimicrobial resistance, and this new plan on TB specifically is slated for publication in September…” (7/28).

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Feed the Future: Behind the Impact Data in Feed the Future’s New Report: 6 Questions
Tjada McKenna, assistant to the administrator at USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and deputy coordinator for development for Feed the Future, discusses the release of new data on Feed the Future’s impact and writes, “This year’s report is groundbreaking: It shares Feed the Future’s traditional output and outcome results, but also includes data that suggest that these results, along with others achieved by related U.S. government efforts, are contributing to drops in poverty and malnutrition — Feed the Future’s top goals…” (7/28).

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U.S. Department of State’s “DipNote”: The Evolution of Development Finance: Making Aid Dollars Count
Dana J. Hyde, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, discusses “the MCC’s new Public-Private Partnership (P3) Platform … to support public-private partnerships in our partner countries.” She states, “…Everything about MCC’s model and approach — from selecting countries to developing compacts to measuring results — is focused on creating an environment that encourages businesses to invest…” (7/29).

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Global Health Technologies Coalition’s “Breakthroughs”: New report on investment in R&D for HIV prevention highlights 2014 global funding trends
In a guest post, the HIV Vaccines & Microbicides Resource Tracking Working Group discusses a new report examining HIV prevention research and development funding trends from 2000 to 2014. “Through their research and analysis, the Working Group identified four key findings about the state of funding for HIV prevention R&D which are highlighted in the report: R&D investment is expanding beyond research to rollout. … Majority of investment is from several large funders. … Decrease in number of philanthropic funders engaged. … Development funding priorities are changing” (7/29).

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Development Policy Centre’s “DevPolicy Blog”: A new model of health workforce training
In a two-part series, Joel Negin, associate professor of international health and deputy head of school at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, discusses ways Australia’s aid program and universities can invest in strengthening national health systems through workforce development and suggests using the U.S. Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) as a model for health workforce training (7/29).

Development Policy Centre’s “DevPolicy Blog”: Scale, value and innovation: a new model of health workforce training
In the second post, Negin writes, “…Australia could and should develop a new cost-effective, catalytic, large-scale program that can build national health systems, empower women, strengthen regional universities, and also make itself obsolete in a decade…” (7/30).

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